Black holes in high and low mass bulges and bulge-less galaxies

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ralf Bender
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5449108

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

Using the SINFONI spectrograph at the VLT with the aid of adaptive optics and the laser guide facility, we measured the mass MBH of the central black hole in the bulges of 33 local galaxies. The sample covers the class of classical and pseudo bulges, samples low and high velocity dispersion (σ) objects, elliptical galaxies with ‘cores’ plus some merger remnants and compact objects. We find that σ is a better indicator of MBH than the classical bulge luminosity or mass Mbulge, and MBH does not correlate with disk or pseudo-bulge luminosity or mass. High-σ galaxies have systematically higher MBH than predicted by the extrapolation of the MBH −σ relation, easing the problem of explaining the abundance of very massive high redshift quasars. Recent mergers have black holes with masses lower than expected for the luminosity or mass of their bulges. In contrast, galaxies with compact bulges have black holes masses higher than expected. The residuals from the MBH − Mbulge relation correlate with the density of the classical bulge ρbulge.

Publications

• (2007). The black hole mass and extreme orbital structure in NGC 1399. The Astrophysical Journal, 671(2), 1321
  Gebhardt, K., Lauer, T.R., Pinkney, J., Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1086/522938)
• (2007): Supermassive black holes in local galaxies. In: Comptes Rendus Physique 8 (1), S. 16–25
  R. Bender, R.P. Saglia
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crhy.2006.11.005)
• (2007): The supermassive black hole in NGC 4486a detected with SINFONI at the Very Large Telescope. In: Mon Not R Astron Soc 379 (3), S. 909–914
  Nowak, N., Saglia, R.P., Thomas, J., Bender, R., Pannella, M., Gebhardt, K., Davies, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11949.x)
• (2008). The supermassive black hole of Fornax A. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 391(4), 1629-1649
  Nowak, N., Saglia, R.P., Thomas, J., Bender, R., Davies, R., Gebhardt, K.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13960.x)
• (2009). A quintet of black hole mass determinations. The Astrophysical Journal, 695(2), 1577
  Gültekin, K., Richstone, D. O.; Gebhardt, K., Lauer, T. R., Pinkney, J., Aller, M. C., Bender, R. et al.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/695/2/1577)
• (2009). A Stellar Dynamical Measurement of the Black Hole Mass in the Maser Galaxy NGC 4258. The Astrophysical Journal, 693(1), 946
  Siopis, C. Gebhardt, K., Lauer, T. R., Kormendy, J., Pinkney, J., Richstone, D., Faber, S. M., Tremaine, S., Aller, M. C.; Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/693/1/946)
• (2009). The black hole mass, stellar mass-to-light ratio, and dark halo in M87. The Astrophysical Journal, 700(2), 1690
  Gebhardt, K, Thomas, J
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/1690)
• (2009). The M-σ and ML relations in galactic bulges, and determinations of their intrinsic scatter. The Astrophysical Journal, 698(1), 198
  Gültekin, K., Richstone, D. O.; Gebhardt, K., Lauer, T. R., Tremaine, S., Aller, M. C., Bender, R. et al.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/698/1/198)
• Correlations between Supermassive Black Holes, Velocity Dispersions, and Mass Deficits in Elliptical Galaxies with Cores. 2009, ApJ, 691, L142
  Kormendy, J., Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/691/2/L142)
• (2010). Do black hole masses scale with classical bulge luminosities only? The case of the two composite pseudo-bulge galaxies NGC 3368 and NGC 3489. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 403(2), 646-672
  Nowak, N., Thomas, J., Erwin, P., Saglia, R.P., Bender, R., Davies, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.16167.x)
• (2011). The central black hole mass of the high-σ but low-bulge-luminosity lenticular galaxy NGC 1332. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 410(2), 1223-1236
  Rusli, S., Thomas, J., Saglia, R.P., Erwin, P., Nowak, N., Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17610.x)
• (2011): Supermassive black holes do not correlate with dark matter haloes of galaxies. In: Nature 469 (7330), S. 377–380
  Kormendy, J., Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09695)
• (2011): Supermassive black holes do not correlate with galaxy disks or pseudobulges. In: Nature 469 (7330), S. 374–376
  Kormendy, J., Bender, R.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09694)