A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
Laura FerrareseCurrent address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854David MerrittDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854
2000en
ABI
Abstract
The masses of supermassive black holes correlate almost perfectly with the velocity dispersions of their host bulges, M(BH) ~ sigma^alpha, where alpha =4.8 +/- 0.5$. The relation is much tighter than the relation between M(BH) and bulge luminosity, with a scatter no larger than expected on the basis of measurement error alone. Black hole masses estimated by Magorrian et al. (1998) lie systematically above the M(BH)-sigma relation defined by more accurate mass estimates, some by as much as two orders of magnitude. The tightness of the M(BH)-sigma relation implies a strong link between black hole formation and the properties of the stellar bulge.
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