The Relation between Mid-Infrared Emission and Black Hole Mass in Active Galactic Nuclei: A Direct Way to Probe Black Hole Growth?

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Abstract
We use a large, heterogeneous sample of local active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that includes Seyfert 1 galaxies, Seyfert 2 galaxies, and Palomar-Green quasars to investigate for the first time the relation between black hole mass (MBH) and mid-infrared nuclear emission. We find a clear relation between MBH and 10 μm nuclear luminosity for these local AGNs. There are no significant differences between type 1 and type 2 objects, implying that the reprocessing of the 10 μm nuclear emission is not severely affected by geometric and optical depth effects. We also confirm that MBH is related to the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity, but only for Compton-thin galaxies. We present a theoretical basis for these empirical relations and discuss possible reasons for the observed scatter. Our results show that rest-frame 10 μm and hard X-ray luminosities (especially the former, which is applicable to all AGN types) can be powerful tools for conducting a census of BH masses at high redshift and for probing their cosmological evolution.
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