Revealing Hidden Substructures in the MBH-σ Diagram, and Refining the Bend in the L-σ Relation

Abstract

Using 145 early- and late-type galaxies (ETGs and LTGs) with directly-measured super-massive black hole masses, MBH, we build upon our previous discoveries that: (i) LTGs, most of which have been alleged to contain a pseudobulge, follow the relation MBH\,M*,sph2.160.32; and (ii) the ETG relation MBH\,M*,sph1.270.07 is an artifact of ETGs with/without disks following parallel MBH\,M*,sph1.90.2 relations which are offset by an order of magnitude in the MBH-direction. Here, we searched for substructure in the MBH--(central velocity dispersion, σ) diagram using our recently published, multi-component, galaxy decompositions; investigating divisions based on the presence of a depleted stellar core (major dry-merger), a disk (minor wet/dry-merger, gas accretion), or a bar (evolved unstable disk). The S\'ersic and core-S\'ersic galaxies define two distinct relations: MBHσ5.750.34 and MBHσ8.641.10, with rms|BH=0.55 and 0.46~dex, respectively. We also report on the consistency with the slopes and bends in the galaxy luminosity (L)--σ relation due to S\'ersic and core-S\'ersic ETGs, and LTGs which all have S\'ersic light-profiles. Two distinct relations (superficially) reappear in the MBH--σ diagram upon separating galaxies with/without a disk (primarily for the ETG sample), while we find no significant offset between barred and non-barred galaxies, nor between galaxies with/without active galactic nuclei. We also address selection biases purported to affect the scaling relations for dynamically-measured MBH samples. Our new, (morphological type)-dependent, MBH--σ relations more precisely estimate MBH in other galaxies, and hold implications for galaxy/black hole co-evolution theories, and simulations. (Abridged)

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