Abstract
- [*] Relics of nuclear activity: do all galaxies have massive black
holes?
- van der Marel R.P.
- in `Galaxy interactions at low and high redshift', Proceedings of
IAU Symp. 186, Sanders D.B., Barnes J., eds.,
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 333-340, 1998
- © 1998. International Astronomical Union.
All Rights Reserved.
-
- [*]
Citations to
this paper in the ADS
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 M_BH and spheroid luminosity L_sph,
approximately of the form M_BH = 10^{-2} L_sph (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.
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Last modified October 9, 2000.
Roeland van der Marel,
marel@stsci.edu.
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