The (black hole mass)-(host spheroid luminosity) relation at high and low masses, the quadratic growth of black holes, and intermediate-mass black hole candidates

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between black hole mass and host galaxy luminosity, revealing different scaling laws for galaxy types and proposing a quadratic growth model for black holes in gas-rich galaxies, with implications for intermediate-mass black hole candidates.

Contribution

It distinguishes the M_bh-L relation for core-Sersic and Sersic galaxies, introduces a quadratic growth model for black holes, and predicts intermediate-mass black hole candidates.

Findings

Core-Sersic galaxies follow a near-linear M_bh-L relation.

Sersic galaxies exhibit a quadratic M_bh-M_sph relation.

Predicted intermediate-mass black hole masses in low luminosity spheroids.

Abstract

From a sample of 72 galaxies with reliable supermassive black hole masses M_(bh), we derive the M_(bh)-(host spheroid luminosity, L) relation for (i) the subsample of 24 core-Sersic galaxies with partially depleted cores, and (ii) the remaining subsample of 48 Sersic galaxies. Using (K_s)-band 2MASS data, we find the near-linear relation M_(bh) ~ L_(K_s)^(1.10+/-0.20) for the core-Sersic spheroids thought to be built in additive dry merger events, while M_(bh) ~ L_(K_s)^(2.73+/-0.55) for the Sersic spheroids built from gas-rich processes. After converting literature B-band disk galaxy magnitudes into inclination- and dust-corrected bulge magnitudes, via a useful new equation presented herein, we obtain a similar result. Unlike with the M_(bh)-sigma diagram, which is also updated here using the same galaxy sample, it remains unknown whether barred and non-barred Sersic galaxies are offset from each other in the M_(bh)-L diagram. While black hole feedback has typically been invoked to explain what was previously thought to be a nearly constant M_bh/M_sph mass ratio of ~0.2%, we advocate that the near-linear M_bh-L and M_bh-M_sph relations observed at high masses may have instead largely arisen from the additive dry merging of galaxies. We argue that feedback results in a dramatically different scaling relation, such that black hole mass scales roughly quadratically with the spheroid mass in Sersic galaxies. We therefore introduce a revised cold-gas 'quasar' mode feeding equation for semi-analytical models to reflect what we dub the "quadratic growth" of black holes in Sersic galaxies built amidst gas-rich processes. Finally, we use our new Sersic M_bh-L equations to predict the masses of candidate `intermediate mass' black holes in almost 50 low luminosity spheroids containing AGN, finding many masses between that of stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes.