English

M - sigma relation between SMBHs and the velocity dispersion of globular cluster systems

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-06-04 v2

Abstract

We find evidence that the mass MBH of central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) correlates with the velocity dispersion sigma_GC of globular cluster systems of their host galaxies. This extends the well-known MBH - sigma_sph relation between black hole mass and velocity dispersion of the host spheroidal component. We compile published measurements of both MBH and sigma_GC for a sample of 13 systems and find the relation log(MBH) = alpha + beta log(sigma_GC/200) with alpha = 8.63 \pm 0.09 and beta = 3.76 \pm 0.52. We also consider blue (metal-poor) and red (metal-rich) globular clusters sub-populations separately and obtain a surprisingly tight correlation using only the velocity dispersion sigma_GC^red of the red clusters with alpha = 8.73 \pm 0.09 and beta = 3.84 \pm 0.52 and an intrinsic scatter eps_0 = 0.22 dex compared to eps_0 = 0.27 dex for the MBH - sigma_sph of our sample. We use our MBH - sigma_GC relation to estimate the central black hole mass in five galaxies for which sigma_GC^red is measured.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1204.0144,
  title  = {M - sigma relation between SMBHs and the velocity dispersion of globular cluster systems},
  author = {Raphael Sadoun and Jacques Colin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.0144},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

6 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS