Depleted Galaxy Cores and Dynamical Black Hole Masses

Abstract

Shallow cores in bright, massive galaxies are commonly thought to be the result of scouring of stars by mergers of binary supermassive black holes. Past investigations have suggested correlations between the central black hole mass and the stellar light or mass deficit in the core, using proxy measurements of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ or stellar mass-to-light ratios (${\rm Y}$). Drawing on a wealth of dynamical models which provide both $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ and ${\rm Y}$, we identify cores in 23 galaxies, of which 20 have direct, reliable measurements of $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ and dynamical stellar mass-to-light ratios (${{\rm Y}}_{\star ,\mathrm{dyn}}$). These cores are identified and measured using Core-Sérsic model fits to surface brightness profiles which extend out to large radii (typically more than the effective radius of the galaxy); for approximately one fourth of the galaxies, the best fit includes an outer (\sersic) envelope component. We find that the core radius is most strongly correlated with the black hole mass and that it correlates better with total galaxy luminosity than it does with velocity dispersion. The strong core-size-- $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ correlation enables estimation of black hole masses (in core galaxies) with an accuracy comparable to the $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$--$\sigma$ relation (rms scatter of 0.30 dex in $\log M_{\mathrm{BH}}$), without the need for spectroscopy. The light and mass deficits correlate more strongly with galaxy velocity dispersion than they do with black hole mass. Stellar mass deficits span a range of 0.2--39 \mbh, with almost all (87%) being $<10M_{\mathrm{BH}}$; the median value is 2.2 $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$.

Proof-corrected version, AJ, 146, 160, http://stacks.iop.org/1538-3881/146/160

References in corpus (12)

• Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
• A systematic variation of the stellar initial mass function in early-type galaxies
• Empirical Color Transformations Between SDSS Photometry and Other Photometric Systems
• The Black Hole Mass, Stellar M/L, and Dark Halo in M87
• Ejection of Supermassive Black Holes from Galaxy Cores
• The black hole mass -- stellar velocity dispersion correlation: bulges versus pseudobulges
• An Over-Massive Black Hole in the Compact Lenticular Galaxy NGC1277
• Dynamical modelling of luminous and dark matter in 17 Coma early-type galaxies
• Intracluster light and the extended stellar envelopes of cD galaxies: An analytical description
• Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei: III. 'Core' Ellipticals and 'Missing' Light
• The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. III. The Three-Component Structure of Nearby Elliptical Galaxies
• The Black Hole Mass and Extreme Orbital Structure in NGC1399

Cited by in corpus (60)

• The SINFONI Black Hole Survey: The Black Hole Fundamental Plane revisited and the paths of (co-) evolution of supermassive black holes and bulges
• Imfit: A Fast, Flexible New Program for Astronomical Image Fitting
• The MASSIVE Survey - I. A Volume-Limited Integral-Field Spectroscopic Study of the Most Massive Early-Type Galaxies within 108 Mpc
• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• A 17-billion-solar-mass black hole in a group galaxy with a diffuse core
• Black Hole Mass Scaling Relations for Early-Type Galaxies: $M_{BH}$-$M_{\ast ,sph}$ and $M_{BH}$-$M_{\ast ,gal}$
• Megamaser Disks Reveal a Broad Distribution of Black Hole Mass in Spiral Galaxies
• Black Hole Mass Scaling Relations for Spiral Galaxies. I. $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{sph}}$
• Galaxy bulges and their massive black holes: a review
• The Dynamical Fingerprint of Core Scouring in Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• A 40-billion solar mass black hole in the extreme core of Holm 15A, the central galaxy of Abell 85
• HST Imaging of Fading AGN Candidates I: Host-Galaxy Properties and Origin of the Extended Gas
• The formation of extremely diffuse galaxy cores by merging supermassive black holes
• The Atlas3D project -- XXXI. Nuclear radio emission in nearby early-type galaxies
• Supermassive black holes and their host spheroids I. Disassembling galaxies
• Free Form Lensing Implications for the Collision of Dark Matter and Gas in the Frontier Fields Cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403
• Overmassive black holes in the $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-\sigma$ diagram do not belong to over (dry) merged galaxies
• The Brightest Cluster Galaxy in Abell 85: The Largest Core Known so far
• Hubble Frontier Field Free-Form Mass Mapping of the Massive Multiple-Merging Cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745
• A Precision Measurement of the Mass of the Black Hole in NGC 3258 from High-Resolution ALMA Observations of its Circumnuclear Disk
• A remarkably large depleted core in the Abell 2029 BCG IC 1101
• The stellar population and initial mass function of NGC 1399 with MUSE
• The MBHBM* Project -- I: Measurement of the Central Black Hole Mass in Dwarf Galaxy NGC 3504 Using Molecular Gas Kinematics
• Two channels of supermassive black hole growth as seen on the galaxies mass-size plane
• Molecular gas in the centre of nearby galaxies from VLT/SINFONI integral field spectroscopy - II. Kinematics
• The MASSIVE Survey IX: Photometric Analysis of 35 High Mass Early-Type Galaxies with HST WFC3/IR
• Formation channels of slowly rotating early-type galaxies
• A re-evaluation of the central velocity-dispersion profile in NGC 6388
• Specific Frequencies and Luminosity Profiles of Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light in Abell 1689
• Black hole mass measurement using ALMA observations of [CI] and CO emissions in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC7469
• The SLUGGS Survey: Multi-population dynamical modelling of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1407 from stars and globular clusters
• KETJU -- resolving small-scale supermassive black hole dynamics in GADGET-4
• The quest for the largest depleted galaxy core: supermassive black hole binaries and stalled in-falling satellites
• Ultramassive black holes in the most massive galaxies: $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-\sigma$ versus $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-R_{\mathrm{b}}$
• An ALMA Gas-dynamical Mass Measurement of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Local Compact Galaxy UGC 2698
• Reading the tea leaves in the $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{sph}}$ and $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$R_{\mathrm{e},\mathrm{sph}}$ diagrams: dry and gaseous mergers with remnant angular momentum
• The supermassive black hole and double nucleus of the core elliptical NGC5419
• Dynamical modelling of the twisted galaxy PGC 046832
• Supermassive black holes and their host spheroids III. The $M_{BH}-n_{sph}$ correlation
• The nuclear activity and central structure of the elliptical galaxy NGC 5322
• Suppression of stellar tidal disruption rates by anisotropic initial conditions
• Core shapes and orientations of core-Sersic galaxies
• Evolution of supermassive black hole binaries and tidal disruption rates in nonspherical galactic nuclei
• The isotropic center of NGC 5419 -- A core in formation?
• Detailed shapes of the line-of-sight velocity distributions in massive early-type galaxies from non-parametric spectral models
• Too big to be real? No depleted core in Holm 15A
• The size--mass and other structural parameter ($n,{\mu }_z,R_z$) relations for local bulges/spheroids from multicomponent decompositions
• The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies
• Triaxial Schwarzschild Models of NGC 708: a 10-billion solar mass black hole in a low dispersion galaxy with a Kroupa IMF
• Unravelling the Origin of the Counter-Rotating Core in IC 1459 with KMOS and MUSE
• Unveiling Gargantua: A new search strategy for the most massive central cluster black holes
• Identifying supermassive black hole recoil in elliptical galaxies
• The dynamics of three nearby E0 galaxies in refracted gravity
• Modelling dust rings in early-type galaxies through a sequence of radiative transfer simulations and 2D image fitting
• LeMMINGs. VI. Connecting nuclear activity to bulge properties of active and inactive galaxies: radio scaling relations and galaxy environment
• Elliptical (E) and ellicular (ES) galaxies in the M_bh-M_*,sph diagram, and a merger-driven explanation for the origin of ES galaxies, anti-truncated stellar discs in lenticular galaxies, and the Sersicification of E galaxy light profiles
• LeMMINGs. V. Nuclear activity and bulge properties: a detailed multi-component decomposition of $e$-MERLIN Palomar galaxies with $HST$
• Refracted Gravity Solutions from Small to Large Scales
• The most massive galaxies with large depleted cores: structural parameter relations and black hole masses
• Unveiling the properties of galaxy cores excavated by supermassive black hole binaries with SHARP