Erratum: Wandering supermassive black holes in milky-way-mass halos (Astrophysical Journal Letters (2018) 857 (L22) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aabc0a)

  • Michael Tremmel
  • , Fabio Governato
  • , Marta Volonteri
  • , Andrew Pontzen
  • , Thomas R. Quinn

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/Debate

Abstract

1. Summary of Changes A bug in the analysis script used to create Figure 3 in the published article resulted in incorrect angles relative to the plane of the disk being attributed to the wandering supermassive black holes. The old results were produced with the numpy arctan function when the arctan2 function should have been used. With this error corrected, the predicted distribution of SMBH positions relative to the plane of the galactic disk for MW-like galaxies is consistent with a random distribution. We no longer find any preference for wandering SMBHs to exist outside the plane of the galaxy. In fact, there is a slight preference for the BHs to exist closer to the plane, with 66% ± 12% of the BHs existing within 30° of the disk plane compared to 50% for a random distribution. However, this preference is of low significance (less than 2s). A possible explanation of this slight preference could be that interactions taking place edge-on to the plane of the disk may experience stronger tidal forces that result in more efficient disruption of the secondary galaxy. This is the only aspect of the paper where the results are altered by this error. No other results are affected. (Figure Presented).

Original languageEnglish
Article numberL30
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume909
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2021
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Erratum: Wandering supermassive black holes in milky-way-mass halos (Astrophysical Journal Letters (2018) 857 (L22) DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aabc0a)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this