scholarly journals The Masses of Nuclear Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies and Implications for the Space Density of the Most Massive Black Holes

2007 ◽  
Vol 662 (2) ◽  
pp. 808-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tod R. Lauer ◽  
S. M. Faber ◽  
Douglas Richstone ◽  
Karl Gebhardt ◽  
Scott Tremaine ◽  
...  
1997 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 620-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ford ◽  
Z. Tsvetanov ◽  
L. Ferrarese ◽  
G. Kriss ◽  
W. Jaffe ◽  
...  

AbstractHST images have led to the discovery that small (r ~ 1″ r ~ 100 – 200 pc), well-defined, gaseous disks are common in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies. Measurements of rotational velocities in the disks provide a means to measure the central mass and search for massive black holes in the parent galaxies. The minor axes of these disks are closely aligned with the directions of the large–scale radio jets, suggesting that it is angular momentum of the disk rather than that of the black hole that determines the direction of the radio jets. Because the disks are directly observable, we can study the disks themselves, and investigate important questions which cannot be directly addressed with observations of the smaller and unresolved central accretion disks. In this paper we summarize what has been learned to date in this rapidly unfolding new field.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (H15) ◽  
pp. 269-270
Author(s):  
Dong-Woo Kim ◽  
Silvia Pellegrini

The physical properties of the hot interstellar matter in elliptical galaxies are directly related with the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies via star formation episodes, environmental effects such as stripping, infall, and mergers, and growth of super-massive black holes. The recent successful Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray space missions have provided a large amount of high spatial/spectral resolution observational data on the hot ISM in elliptical galaxies. At the same time, theoretical studies with numerical simulations and analytical modeling of the dynamical and chemical evolution of elliptical galaxies have made a significant progress and start to predict various observable quantities.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S245) ◽  
pp. 219-222
Author(s):  
Philip F. Hopkins

AbstractWe study observed correlations between supermassive black hole (BHs) and the properties of their host galaxies, and show that the observations define a BH “fundamental plane” (BHFP), of the form $\mbh\propto\sigma^{3.0\pm0.3}\,\re^{0.43\pm0.19}$ or $\mbh\propto\mstar^{0.54\pm0.17}\,\sigma^{2.2\pm0.5}$, analogous to the FP of elliptical galaxies. The BHFP is preferred over a simple relation between MBH and any of σ, M*, Mdyn, or Re alone at > 3 σ (99.9%) significance. The existence of this BHFP has important implications for the formation of supermassive BHs and the masses of the very largest black holes, and immediately resolves several apparent conflicts between the BH masses expected and measured for outliers in both the MBH − σ and MBH − M* relations.


Nature ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 333 (6176) ◽  
pp. 829-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Fabian ◽  
C. R. Canizares

1995 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
P.T. De Zeeuw

Studies of the mass–to–light ratio M/L as a function of radius in a galaxy usually focus on: a) the existence of dark matter in and around galaxies, and b) the presence of massive black holes in their nuclei. Here we concentrate on elliptical galaxies, and summarize some recent work in both areas. We refer to more extensive reviews for earlier developments (Schwarzschild, 1954; Trimble, 1987; Ashman, 1992; Kormendy, 1993). A third area of interest is the behavior of the stellar populations as a function of radius, and its effect on M/L (e.g., Peletier, 1989). We will not discuss this here.


1999 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 333-340
Author(s):  
Roeland P. van der Marel

The distribution of black hole (BH) masses M• in galaxies is constrained by photometric and kinematic studies of individual galaxies, and by the properties of the quasar population. I review our understanding of these topics, present new results of adiabatic BH growth models for HST photometry of elliptical galaxies with brightness profiles of the ‘core’ type, and discuss the implications of ground-based stellar kinematical data. It is not yet possible to uniquely determine the BH mass distribution, but the available evidence is not inconsistent with a picture in which: (i) a majority of galaxies has BHs; (ii) there is a correlation (with large scatter) between M• and spheroid luminosity Lsph of the form M• ≈ 10−2Lsph (solar B-band units); and (iii) the BHs formed in a quasar phase through mass accretion with efficiency ε ≈ 0.05.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 77-77
Author(s):  
W. Bian

The detectability of Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s) with hidden broad-line regions(HBLRs) is still a question open to debate. Using a large sample of 90 Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s) with spectropolarimetric observations (Gu & Huang 2002), we tested the suggestion that the presence of hidden broad-line regions (HBLRs) in Sy2s is dependent upon the Eddington ratio (Nicastro et al. 2003). The stellar velocity dispersion and the extinction-corrected [O III] luminosity are used to derive the masses of central super-massive black holes and the Eddington ratios. The main conclusion are summarized as follows.


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