paper

A Relationship between Supermassive Black Hole Mass and the Total Gravitational Mass of the Host Galaxy

arXiv:0909.0269 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/704/2/1135

Abstract

We investigate the correlation between the mass of a central supermassive black hole and the total gravitational mass of the host galaxy (M_tot). The results are based on 43 galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey whose black hole masses were estimated through two scaling relations: the relation between black hole mass and Sersic index (M_bh - n) and the relation between black hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion (M_bh - sigma). We use the enclosed mass within R_200, the radius within which the density profile of the early type galaxy exceeds the critical density of the Universe by a factor of 200, determined by gravitational lens models fitted to HST imaging data, as a tracer of the total gravitational mass. The best fit correlation, where M_bh is determined from M_bh - sigma relation, is log(M_bh) = (8.18 +/- 0.11) + (1.55 +/- 0.31) (log(M_tot) - 13.0) over 2 orders of magnitude in M_bh. From a variety of tests, we find that we cannot reliably infer a connection between M_bh and M_tot from the M_bh - n relation. The M_bh - M_tot relation provides some of the first, direct observational evidence to test the prediction that supermassive black hole properties are determined by the halo properties of the host galaxy.

29 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

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