2001/10/30 by M. Sarzi, Marc Sarzi, Hans‐Walter Rix +11 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Limit (mathematics) #Physics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/338351
To appear in ApJ. 11 pages
arxiv created 2001/10/30 · openalex publication_date 2002/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report upper limits on the masses of black holes that can be present in the centers of 16 nearby galaxy bulges. These limits M for our statistically complete sample were derived from the modeling of the central emission-line widths ([N II] or [S II]), observed over a 0 25 × 0 2 ( R ≲ 9 pc) aperture. The experiment has a mean detection sensitivity of ~3.9 × 10 6 M ☉ . For three sample members with direct determinations of M BH our upper limits agree within the uncertainties, while in general our upper limits are found to be close to the masses measured in other bulges with global properties similar to ours. Remarkably, our limits are quite close to the recently derived M BH -σ * relation. These results support a picture wherein the black hole mass and overall galaxy structure are closely linked, as galaxies with exceptionally high M BH at a given σ * apparently are rare.