1997/12/04 by Roeland P. van der Marel, van der Marel, Roeland P.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9712076
8 pages, LaTeX, with 2 PostScript figures. Invited Review for `Galaxy Interactions at Low and High Redshift', Proc. IAU Symposium 186, Kyoto, August 1997, D. B. Sanders, J. Barnes, eds., Kluwer Academic Publ
arxiv created 1997/12/04 · openalex publication_date 1997/12/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The distribution of black hole masses in galaxies is constrained by photometric and kinematic studies of individual galaxies, and by the properties of the quasar population. I review our understanding of these topics, present new results of adiabatic black hole growth models for HST photometry of elliptical galaxies with brightness profiles of the `core' type, and discuss the implications of ground-based stellar kinematical data. It is not yet possible to uniquely determine the black hole mass distribution, but the available evidence is not inconsistent with a picture in which: (i) a majority of galaxies has black holes; (ii) there is a correlation (with large scatter) between black holes mass MBH and spheroid luminosity Lsph, approximately of the form MBH = 10-2 Lsph (in solar B-band units); and (iii) the black holes formed in a quasar phase through mass accretion with an efficiency of approximately 0.05.