On the relation between the mass of Compact Massive Objects and their host galaxies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the relationship between the masses of central massive objects like black holes and star clusters and their host galaxies, revealing distinct correlations and a decline of nuclear star clusters in brighter galaxies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive dataset and compares the correlations of nuclear star clusters and black holes with galaxy properties, highlighting differences in their scaling relations.

Findings

Black hole mass-velocity dispersion slope: 5.19±0.28

Nuclear star cluster mass-velocity dispersion slope: 1.84±0.64

Nuclear star clusters are less common in bright galaxies

Abstract

Supermassive black holes and/or very dense stellar clusters are found in the central regions of galaxies. Nuclear star clusters are present mainly in faint galaxies while upermassive black holes are common in galaxies with masses $\geq 10^{10}$ M$_\odot $. In the intermediate galactic mass range both types of central massive objects (CMOs) are found. Here we present our collection of a huge set of nuclear star cluster and massive black hole data that enlarges significantly already existing data bases useful to investigate for correlations of their absolute magnitudes, velocity dispersions and masses with structural parameters of their host galaxies. In particular, we directed our attention to some differences between the correlations of nuclear star clusters and massive black holes as subsets of CMOs with hosting galaxies. In this context, the mass-velocity dispersion relation plays a relevant role because it seems the one that shows a clearer difference between the supermassive black holes and nuclear star clusters. The $M_{MBH}-{\sigma}$ has a slope of $5.19\pm 0.28$ while $M_{NSC}-{\sigma}$ has the much smaller slope of $1.84\pm 0.64$. The slopes of the CMO mass- host galaxy B magnitude of the two types of CMOs are indistinguishable within the errors while that of the NSC mass-host galaxy mass relation is significantly smaller than for supermassive black holes. Another important result is the clear depauperation of the NSC population in bright galaxy hosts, which reflects also in a clear flattening of the NSC mass vs host galaxy mass at high host masses.