The M•-σe relation for local type 1 AGNs and quasars

We analyzed Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations of 42 local z less than or similar to 0.1 type 1 active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies taken from the Palomar-Green quasar sample and the close AGN reference survey. Our goal was to study the relation between the black hole mass (M-center dot) and bulge stellar velocity dispersion (sigma(e)) for type 1 active galaxies. The sample spans black hole masses of 10(6.0) - 10(9.2) M-circle dot, bolometric luminosities of 10(42.9) - 10(46.0) erg s(-1), and Eddington ratios of 0.006 - 1.2. We avoided AGN emission by extracting the spectra over annular apertures. We modeled the calcium triplet stellar features and measured stellar velocity dispersions of sigma(*) = 60 - 230 km s(-1) for the host galaxies. We find stellar velocity dispersion values in agreement with previous measurements for local (z less than or similar to 0.1) AGN host galaxies, but slightly lower compared with those reported for nearby X-ray-selected type 2 quasars. Using a novel annular aperture correction recipe to estimate sigma(e) from sigma(*) that considers the bulge morphology and observation beam-smearing, we estimate flux-weighted sigma(e) = 60 - 250 km s(-1). If we consider the bulge type when estimating M-center dot, we find no statistical difference between the distributions of AGN hosts and the inactive galaxies on the M-center dot-sigma(e) plane for M-center dot less than or similar to 108 M-circle dot. Conversely, if we do not consider the bulge type when computing M-center dot, we find that both distributions disagree. We find no correlation between the degree of offset from the M-center dot-sigma(e) relation and Eddington ratio for M-center dot less than or similar to 108 M-circle dot. The current statistics preclude firm conclusions from being drawn for the high-mass range. We argue these observations support notions that a significant fraction of the local type 1 AGNs and quasars have undermassive black holes compared with their host galaxy bulge properties.