2010/04/30 by Andreas Burkert, Scott Tremaine · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/720/1/516
14 pages, 3 figures, to appear in ApJ 720, 516 (2010)
openalex publication_date 2010/08/11 · arxiv created 2010/08/13 · arxiv updated 2015/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Elliptical, lenticular, and early-type spiral galaxies show a remarkably tight power-law correlation between the mass M • of their central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the number N GC of globular clusters (GCs): M • = m •/⋆ × N 1.08±0.04 GC with m •/⋆ = 1.7 × 10 5 M ☉ . Thus, to a good approximation the SMBH mass is the same as the total mass of the GCs. 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 M • –σ relation between SMBH mass and velocity dispersion σ. The small scatter reflects the fact that galaxies with high GC specific frequency S N tend to harbor SMBHs that are more massive than expected from the M • –σ relation.