A correlation between central supermassive black holes and the globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies
Abstract
Elliptical, lenticular, and early-type spiral galaxies show a remarkably tight power-law correlation between the mass MBH of their central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the number NGC of globular clusters: MBH=m*NGC(1.08+/-0.04) with m=1.7*105 solar masses. Thus, to a good approximation the SMBH mass is the same as the total mass of the globular clusters. Based on a limited sample of 13 galaxies, this relation appears to be a better predictor of SMBH mass (rms scatter 0.2 dex) than the MBH-sigma relation between SMBH mass and velocity dispersion sigma. The small scatter reflects the fact that galaxies with high globular cluster specific frequency SN tend to harbor SMBHs that are more massive than expected from the MBH-sigma relation.
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