Evidence for a steeper SMBH-Bulge mass relationship extended to low masses using TDE host galaxies

TL;DR

This study extends the SMBH--Bulge mass relationship to lower masses using TDE host galaxies, revealing a steeper slope than previously known, and investigates selection effects influencing this relation.

Contribution

It introduces a new method using TDEs to probe SMBH scaling relations at low masses and extends the known relationship with a steeper slope.

Findings

TDE plateaus effectively probe SMBH-bulge relations.

The combined data shows a steeper slope (1.34) than previous estimates.

Selection effects can explain the flatter TDE-only relation.

Abstract

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are excellent tools for probing low mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that may otherwise remain undetected. Here, we present an extended SMBH--Bulge mass scaling relationship using these lower mass TDE black holes and their host galaxies. Bulge masses are derived using Prospector fits to UV-MIR spectral energy distributions for the hosts of 40 TDEs that have a detected late-time UV/optical plateau emission, from which a SMBH mass is derived. Overall, we find that TDE plateaus are a successful method for probing BH scaling relations. We combine the observed TDE sample with a higher mass SMBH sample and extend the known relationship, recovering a steeper slope ($m = 1.34 \pm 0.03$) than current literature estimates, which focus on the high mass regime. For the TDE only sample, we measure an equally significant but shallower relationship with a power-law slope of $m = 1.17 \pm 0.10$ and significance $<0.001$. Forward modelling is used to determine whether known selection effects can explain both the comparatively flatter TDE only relation and the overall steepening across the full SMBH mass range. We find that the flattening at TDE masses can be accounted for, however the steepening can not. It appears that if a single slope extends for the whole BH mass range, it must be steeper to include the TDE population.