We report the detection of CO ( 1-0 ) emission from NGC 1277 , a lenticular galaxy in the Perseus Cluster .
NGC 1277 has previously been proposed to host an overmassive black hole ( BH ) compared to the galaxy bulge luminosity ( mass ) , based on stellar-kinematic measurements .
The CO ( 1-0 ) emission , observed with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer ( PdBI ) using both , a more compact ( 2.9 -arcsec resolution ) and a more extended ( 1 -arcsec resolution ) configuration , is likely to originate from the dust lane encompassing the galaxy nucleus at a distance of 0.9 arcsec ( \sim 320 pc ) .
The double-horned CO ( 1-0 ) profile found at 2.9 -arcsec resolution traces 1.5 \times 10 ^ { 8 } M _ { \odot } of molecular gas , likely orbiting in the dust lane at \sim 550 \mathrm { km s ^ { -1 } } , which suggests a total enclosed mass of \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 10 } M _ { \odot } .
At 1-arcsec resolution , the CO ( 1-0 ) emission appears spatially resolved along the dust lane in east-west direction , though at a low signal-to-noise ratio .
In agreement with the previous stellar-kinematic measurements , the CO ( 1-0 ) kinematics is found to be consistent with an \sim 1.7 \times 10 ^ { 10 } M _ { \odot } BH for a stellar mass-to-light ratio of M / L _ { V } = 6.3 , while a less massive BH of \sim 5 \times 10 ^ { 9 } M _ { \odot } is possible when assuming a larger M / L _ { V } = 10 .
While the molecular gas reservoir may be associated with a low level of star formation activity , the extended 2.6-mm continuum emission is likely to originate from a weak AGN , possibly characterized by an inverted radio-to-millimetre spectral energy distribution .
Literature radio and X-ray data indicate that the BH in NGC 1277 is also overmassive with respect to the Fundamental Plane of BH activity .