The possibility that the masses M BH of supermassive black holes (SBHs) correlate with the total gravitational mass of their host galaxy, or the mass M DM of the dark matter halo in which they presumably formed, is investigated using a sample of 16 spiral and 20 elliptical galaxies. The bulge velocity dispersion σ c , typically defined within an aperture of size R ≲ 0.5 kpc, is found to correlate tightly with the galaxy's circular velocity v c , the latter measured at distances from the Galactic center at which the rotation curve is flat, R ~ 20-80 kpc. By using the well-known M BH -σ c relation for SBHs and a prescription to relate v c to the mass of the dark matter halo M DM in a standard ΛCDM cosmology, the correlation between σ c and v c is equivalent to one between M BH and M DM . Such a correlation is found to be nonlinear, with the ratio M BH / M DM decreasing from 2 × 10 -4 for M DM ~ 10 14 M ☉ to 10 -5 for M DM ~ 10 12 M ☉ . Preliminary evidence suggests that halos of mass smaller than ~5 × 10 11 M ☉ are increasingly less efficient at forming SBHs—perhaps even unable to form them.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
A 2002 study studied this question.