Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black Hole Masses and Host Galaxy Properties

Abstract

New kinematic data and modeling efforts in the past few years have substantially expanded and revised dynamical measurements of black hole masses (M • ) at the centers of nearby galaxies. Here we compile an updated sample of 72 black holes and their host galaxies, and present revised scaling relations between M • and stellar velocity dispersion (σ), V -band luminosity (L), and bulge stellar mass (M bulge ), for different galaxy subsamples. Our best-fitting power law relations for the full galaxy sample are log 10 (M • ) = 8.32 + 5.64 log 10 (σ/200 km s −1 ), log 10 (M • ) = 9.23 + 1.11 log 10 (L/10 11 L ), and log 10 (M • ) = 8.46+1.05 log 10 (M bulge /10 11 M ). A log-quadratic fit to the M • −σ relation with an additional term of β 2 [log 10 (σ/200 km s −1 )] 2 gives β 2 = 1.68 ± 1.82 and does not decrease the intrinsic scatter in M • . Including 92 additional upper limits on M • does not change the slope of the M • − σ relation. When the early-and late-type galaxies are fit separately, we obtain similar slopes of 5.20 and 5.06 for the M • − σ relation but significantly different intercepts -M • in early-type galaxies are about 2 times higher than in late types at a given sigma. Within early-type galaxies, our fits to M • (σ) give M • that is about 2 times higher in galaxies with central core profiles than those with central powerlaw profiles. Our M • − L and M • − M bulge relations for early-type galaxies are similar to those from earlier compilations, and core and power-law galaxies yield similar L-and M bulge -based predictions for M • . When the conventional quadrature method is used to determine the intrinsic scatter in M • , our dataset shows weak evidence for increased scatter at M bulge < 10 11 M or L V < 10 10.3 L , while the scatter stays constant for 10 11 < M bulge < 10 12.3 M and 10 10.3 < L V < 10 11.5 L . A Bayesian analysis indicates that a larger sample of M • measurements would be needed to detect any statistically significant trend in the scatter with galaxy properties.

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THEIR HOST SPHEROIDS. II. THE RED AND BLUE SEQUENCE IN THE MBH–M*,SPH DIAGRAM

“…This "rough scaling" was a premature version of the early correlations between black hole mass, M , BH and host spheroid luminosity, L , sph and also host spheroid mass, M sph (Kormendy & Richstone 1995;Magorrian et al 1998;Marconi & Hunt 2003;Häring & Rix 2004). These initial studies were dominated by high-mass, early-type galaxies, for which they too reported a quasi-linear M M diagrams (Ferrarese & Ford 2005;Graham 2007;Lauer et al 2007a;Gültekin et al 2009;Sani et al 2011;Beifiori et al 2012;Erwin & Gadotti 2012;van den Bosch et al 2012;Vika et al 2012;Kormendy & Ho 2013;McConnell & Ma 2013) continued to use galaxy samples dominated by highmass, early-type systems with M M 0.5 10 , BH 8 ´ and they too recovered a near-linear relation. However, the consensus about a linear M M BH sph -correlation was not unanimous.…”

The weak Fe fluorescence line and long-term X-ray evolution of the Compton-thick active galactic nucleus in NGC 7674

“…Measurements near the resolution limit can be unreliable, so we conservatively interpret the measurement and its uncertainty to be equivalent to an upper limit of σ = 91 + 48 = 139 km s −1 . Using the M BH -σ relation from McConnell & Ma (2013) implies an upper limit of M BH < 10 7.43 M .…”

Observational evidence that positive and negative AGN feedback depends on galaxy mass and jet power

“…Boyle & Terlevich 1998;Merloni et al 2004;Aird et al 2010;Madau & Dickinson 2014) and 4) a tight correlation is found between the BH and stellar mass of the host galaxy bulge (e.g. Magorrian et al 1998;McConnell & Ma 2013;Graham & Scott 2013;Kormendy & Ho 2013). There are several examples of composite objects showing both AGN and star formation activity, in the literature (e.g.…”