Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Elizabeth Creviston, Junior
Lead Presenter's Name
Elizabeth Creviston
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Bililign Dullo
Abstract
We use James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) F150W imaging to study the central regions of massive elliptical galaxies, focusing on their partially depleted cores. These cores are thought to form when a binary supermassive black hole (SMBH) ejects stars from the central regions through dynamical three-body interactions. After the binary coalesces, gas accretion onto the newly formed SMBH can trigger a compact active galactic nucleus (AGN), which plays a key role in regulating star formation and shaping galaxy structure. With JWST NIRCam, we extracted the surface brightness profile of NGC 4374, a giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. Our structural analysis reveals a compact (FWHM ∼ 0.11′′) AGN with an apparent magnitude m_F150W ∼17.3 mag, previously undetected in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) studies, making this work the first detection of this point source from structural analysis of optical or near-infrared imaging. We modeled the galaxy’s one- and two-dimensional light distributions using a Gaussian AGN, a core-Sérsic bulge plus an exponential halo model, deriving an updated core size of 2.14′′(∼ 198.9 pc) and a stellar mass deficit of M_def ∼ 1.6 × 10^10 M_⊙ ≈ 17 (SMBH mass) M_BH. This mass deficit corresponds to ∼ 8.3% of the pre-depletion spheroid mass. The large M_def/M_BH ratio suggests that the core may have been enlarged through repetitive core passages of a gravitational-wave-recoiled SMBH. Our findings reveal the power of JWST/NIRCam imaging to resolve small-scale (10-20 pc) nuclear structures and accurately quantify depleted cores in massive galaxies.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
NGC 4374 with JWST/NIRCam: A Central Structural Analysis Revealing a Depleted Core and AGN
We use James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) F150W imaging to study the central regions of massive elliptical galaxies, focusing on their partially depleted cores. These cores are thought to form when a binary supermassive black hole (SMBH) ejects stars from the central regions through dynamical three-body interactions. After the binary coalesces, gas accretion onto the newly formed SMBH can trigger a compact active galactic nucleus (AGN), which plays a key role in regulating star formation and shaping galaxy structure. With JWST NIRCam, we extracted the surface brightness profile of NGC 4374, a giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. Our structural analysis reveals a compact (FWHM ∼ 0.11′′) AGN with an apparent magnitude m_F150W ∼17.3 mag, previously undetected in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) studies, making this work the first detection of this point source from structural analysis of optical or near-infrared imaging. We modeled the galaxy’s one- and two-dimensional light distributions using a Gaussian AGN, a core-Sérsic bulge plus an exponential halo model, deriving an updated core size of 2.14′′(∼ 198.9 pc) and a stellar mass deficit of M_def ∼ 1.6 × 10^10 M_⊙ ≈ 17 (SMBH mass) M_BH. This mass deficit corresponds to ∼ 8.3% of the pre-depletion spheroid mass. The large M_def/M_BH ratio suggests that the core may have been enlarged through repetitive core passages of a gravitational-wave-recoiled SMBH. Our findings reveal the power of JWST/NIRCam imaging to resolve small-scale (10-20 pc) nuclear structures and accurately quantify depleted cores in massive galaxies.