Title: Constraints on the Growth and Spin of the Supermassive Black Hole in M32 From High Cadence Visible Light Observations,
Abstract: We present 1-second cadence observations of M32 (NGC221) with the CHIMERA
instrument at the Hale 200-inch telescope of the Palomar Observatory. Using
field stars as a baseline for relative photometry, we are able to construct a
light curve of the nucleus in the g-prime and r-prime band with 1sigma=36
milli-mag photometric stability. We derive a temporal power spectrum for the
nucleus and find no evidence for a time-variable signal above the noise as
would be expected if the nuclear black hole were accreting gas. Thus, we are
unable to constrain the spin of the black hole although future work will use
this powerful instrument to target more actively accreting black holes. Given
the black hole mass of (2.5+/-0.5)*10^6 Msun inferred from stellar kinematics,
the absence of a contribution from a nuclear time-variable signal places an
upper limit on the accretion rate which is 4.6*10^{-8} of the Eddington rate, a
factor of two more stringent than past upper limits from HST. The low mass of
the black hole despite the high stellar density suggests that the gas liberated
by stellar interactions was primarily at early cosmic times when the low-mass
black hole had a small Eddington luminosity. This is at least partly driven by
a top-heavy stellar initial mass function at early cosmic times which is an
efficient producer of stellar mass black holes. The implication is that
supermassive black holes likely arise from seeds formed through the coalescence
of 3-100 Msun mass black holes that then accrete gas produced through stellar
interaction processes.