Related papers: Explaining the reportedly over-massive black holes…
The identification of galaxies with `overly massive' black holes requires two measurements: a black hole mass (M_bh) and a host spheroid mass (M_sph,*). Here we provide our measurements for NGC 1277. Our structural decomposition reveals…
Considerable evidence suggests that supermassive black holes reside at the centers of massive galactic bulges. At a lower galactic mass range, many dwarf galaxies contain extremely compact nuclei that structurally resemble massive globular…
Some S0 and early-type spiral galaxies possess "composite bulges"; in these galaxies, the photometric bulge -- the central stellar light in excess of the disk light -- is composed of both a "(disky) pseudobulge", with a flattened, disklike…
Galaxy merger histories correlate strongly with stellar mass, largely regardless of morphology. Thus, at fixed stellar mass, spheroids and discs share similar assembly histories, both in terms of the frequency of mergers and the…
We examine the fraction of early-type (and spiral) galaxies found in groups and clusters of galaxies as a function of dark matter halo mass. We use morphological classifications from the Galaxy Zoo project matched to halo masses from both…
We provide a new estimate of the local supermassive black hole mass function using (i) the empirical relation between supermassive black hole mass and the Sersic index of the host spheroidal stellar system and (ii) the measured (spheroid)…
Despite the insights gained in the last few years, our knowledge about the formation and evolution scenario for the spheroid-dominated galaxies is still incomplete. New and more powerful cosmological simulations have been developed that…
Recent observations indicate that the mass of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) correlate differently with different galaxy stellar components. Comparing such observations with the results of "ab initio" galaxy formation models can provide…
Disc dominated galaxies can be difficult to accommodate in a hierarchical formation scenario like $\Lambda$CDM, where mergers are an important growth mechanism. However, observational evidence indicates that these galaxies are common. We…
The existence of supermassive black holes lurking in the centers of galaxies and of stellar binary systems containing a black hole with a few solar masses has been established beyond reasonable doubt. The idea that black holes of…
The relation between the stellar mass and size of a galaxy's structural subcomponents, such as discs and spheroids, is a powerful way to understand the processes involved in their formation. Using very large catalogues of photometric…
(ABRIDGED) We present a model in which the seeds of supermassive black holes form from the lowest angular momentum gas in proto-galaxies at high redshift. We show that this leads to a correlation between black hole masses and spheroid…
The masses of supermassive black holes are known to correlate with the properties of the bulge components of their host galaxies. In contrast, they appear not to correlate with galaxy disks. Disk-grown pseudobulges are intermediate in…
The spheroid of the Sombrero galaxy, NGC 4594, is considered a prototype of classical, merger-built bulges. We use a Spitzer, IRAC 3.6 micron image to perform a detailed structural analysis of this galaxy. If one fits to this image only…
Spiral galaxies comprise three major structural components; thin discs, thick discs, and central bulges. Relative dominance of these components is known to correlate with the total mass of the galaxy, and produces a remarkable morphological…
Historically, galactic bulges are thought to be elliptical galaxy-like objects sitting in the middle of a generally larger disk. There are, however, more and more claims that some bulges are much more similar to disks. John Kormendy has…
We consider black hole - galaxy coevolution using simple analytic arguments. We focus on the fact that several supermassive black holes are known with masses significantly larger than suggested by the $M - {\sigma}$ relation, sometimes also…
The ACS Virgo cluster survey by Cote' and collaborators shows the presence of compact nuclei at the photocenters of many early-type galaxies. It is argued that they are the low-mass counterparts of nuclei hosting Super Massive Black Holes…
The S\'ersic $R^{1/n}$ model is the best approximation known to date for describing the light distribution of stellar spheroidal and disk components, with the S\'ersic index $n$ providing a direct measure of the central radial concentration…
We have analysed the distribution of inclination-corrected galaxy concentrations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that unlike most galaxy properties, which are distributed bimodally, the distribution of concentrations is trimodal:…