English

Dark matter halos and the M-\sigma relation for supermassive black holes

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2016-07-20 v1

Abstract

We develop models of two-component spherical galaxies to establish scaling relations linking the properties of spheroids at z=0z=0 (total stellar masses, effective radii ReR_e and velocity dispersions within ReR_e) to the properties of their dark-matter halos at both z=0z=0 and higher redshifts. . Our main motivation is the widely accepted idea that the accretion-driven growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in protogalaxies is limited by quasar-mode feedback and gas blow-out. The SMBH masses, MBHM_{\rm{BH}}, should then be connected to the dark-matter potential wells at the redshift zqsoz_{\rm{qso}} of the blow-out. We specifically consider the example of a power-law dependence on the maximum circular speed in a protogalactic dark-matter halo: MBHVd,pk4M_{\rm{BH}}\propto V^4_{\rm{d,pk}}, as could be expected if quasar-mode feedback were momentum-driven. For halos with a given Vd,pkV_{\rm{d,pk}} at a given zqso0z_{\rm{qso}}\ge 0, our model scaling relations give a typical stellar velocity dispersion σap(Re)\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e) at z=0z=0. Thus, they transform a theoretical MBHM_{\rm{BH}}-Vd,pkV_{\rm{d,pk}} relation into a prediction for an observable MBHM_{\rm{BH}}-σap(Re)\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e) relation. We find the latter to be distinctly non-linear in log-log space. Its shape depends on the generic redshift-evolution of halos in a {Λ\Lambda}CDM cosmology and the systematic variation of stellar-to-dark matter mass fraction at z=0z=0, in addition to any assumptions about the physics underlying the MBHM_{\rm{BH}}-Vd,pkV_{\rm{d,pk}} relation. Despite some clear limitations of the form we use for MBHM_{\rm{BH}} versus Vd,pkV_{\rm{d,pk}}, and even though we do not include any SMBH growth through dry mergers at low redshift, our results for MBHM_{\rm{BH}}-σap(Re)\sigma_{\rm{ap}}(R_e) compare well to data for local early types if we take zqsoz_{\rm{qso}} \sim 2-4.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.05478,
  title  = {Dark matter halos and the M-\sigma relation for supermassive black holes},
  author = {Adam C Larkin and Dean E McLaughlin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.05478},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Accepted by MNRAS. 20 pages, 6 figures