An Observed Fundamental Plane Relation for Supermassive Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper identifies a fundamental plane relation linking supermassive black hole mass with galaxy properties, providing a more accurate model than previous simple correlations and impacting theories of black hole formation.

Contribution

It introduces the observed black hole fundamental plane (BHFP), a new multi-variable relation that better explains black hole masses compared to prior single-variable correlations.

Findings

BHFP relation is statistically preferred over simpler models.

The BHFP explains outliers in previous black hole scaling relations.

Implications for black hole formation theories and galaxy evolution.

Abstract

We study observed correlations between supermassive black hole (BHs) and the properties of their host galaxies, and show that the observations define a BH 'fundamental plane' (BHFP), of the form M_BH sigma^(3.0+-0.3)*R_e^(0.43+-0.19), or M_BH M_bulge^(0.54+-0.17)*sigma^(2.2+-0.5), analogous to the FP of elliptical galaxies. The BHFP is preferred over a simple relation between M_BH and any of sigma, M_bulge, M_dyn, or R_e alone at >99.9% significance. The existence of this BHFP has important implications for the formation of supermassive BHs and the masses of the very largest black holes, and immediately resolves several apparent conflicts between the BH masses expected and measured for outliers in both the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_bulge relations.