Program: GN-2016A-FT-33

Little is known about the occurrence rate or properties of massive black holes (BHs) in the nuclei of dwarf galaxies. However, this information is important for understanding BH formation and growth in the early universe and studying BH-galaxy co-evolution on all scales. Given the small gravitational sphere of influence of a BH in this mass range, we must search for signatures of BH activity to identify and study these systems. Reines et al. (2013) identified 136 galaxies with photoionization signatures of AGN activity based on their Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. We propose follow-up observations of 4 galaxies selected from Reines et al. with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS). All galaxies have evidence for broad H-alpha emission indicative of dense gas orbiting a BH in their SDSS spectroscopy. The improved sensitivity of Gemini and spectral resolution of GMOS will allow us to accurately measure broad emission features which can be used to estimate BH mass, as well as measure stellar velocity dispersions of the host galaxies. This enables us to determine where these systems fall with respect to the M-sigma relation -- an important constraint for BH formation and growth models.