English

Can dwarf spheroidal galaxies host a central black hole ?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-12-17 v1

Abstract

We construct mass models of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies to place constraints on the central black hole (BH) masses they can host. We model the galaxies as a three-component system consisting of the stars, dark matter halo, and a central black hole, using the Osipkov--Merritt--Cuddeford class of anisotropic distribution function. The posterior distribution of black hole mass remains flat toward the low-mass end, indicating that the kinematic data places an upper limit on the black hole mass. Our analysis yields a 95% credible upper limit of log(M/M)<6\log(M_{\bullet}/M_{\odot}) < 6. We combine our results with black hole mass measurements and upper limits from the literature to construct a unified MM_{\bullet}--σ\sigma_{} relation spanning σ10\sigma_{} \sim 10--300,km,s1300,\mathrm{km,s^{-1}}, described by log(M)=8.32+4.08,log(σ/200,km,s1)\log(M_{\bullet}) = 8.32 + 4.08,\log\left(\sigma_{}/200,\mathrm{km,s^{-1}}\right), with an intrinsic scatter of σint=0.55\sigma_{\rm int} = 0.55. We compare the inferred limits to models of black hole growth via momentum-driven accretion and stellar capture, which predict black hole masses in the range 10310^{3}--104,M10^{4},M_{\odot} for the range σ6\sigma_{} \sim 6--12,km,s112,\mathrm{km,s^{-1}}, in close agreement with the MM_{\bullet}--σ\sigma_{*} relation within the 95% credible upper limits on the black hole masses derived in this work.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.14146,
  title  = {Can dwarf spheroidal galaxies host a central black hole ?},
  author = {K. Aditya and A. Mangalam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.14146},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in ApJ. Comments are welcome