Probing the black hole - bulge relationship at high redshift with CO molecular lines

Abstract

It has been suggested that the CO line width (FWHM(CO)) is a surrogate for the bulge velocity dispersion (σ) of the host galaxies of high-redshift quasars, and the black hole – bulge (M−σ) relation obtained with this assumption departs significantly from the M−σ relation in the local universe. Based on an investigation of the correlation between the CO line width and the bulge velocity dispersion using a sample of 33 nearby Seyfert galaxies, we find that the formula adopted in previous studies, σ=FWHM(CO)/2.35, is generally not a good approximation. By involving the galactic inclination angle i as an additional parameter, we obtain a tight correlation between the inclination-corrected CO line width and the bulge velocity dispersion, namely, FWHM(CO)/sin i=−67.16±80.18+(3.62±0.68)σ. Using this new relation, we can better estimate the bulge velocity dispersion from the CO line width if the galactic inclination is known. We apply this new relation to nine high-redshift quasars with CO line detections and find that they are consistent with the local M−σ relation if their inclination angles are around 15°. The possible smaller inclinations of the high-redshift quasars are preferred because of their relatively greater likelihood of detection, and are also consistent with their relatively smaller CO line widths compared to the submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift having a similar total amount of molecular gas.