Open AccessThe masses of black holes in the nuclei of spirals
Author(s) -
Salucci Paolo,
Ratnam Charu,
Monaco Pierluigi,
Danese Luigi
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03622.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , bulge , galaxy , black hole (networking) , active galactic nucleus , astronomy , spiral galaxy , luminosity , elliptical galaxy , computer network , routing protocol , routing (electronic design automation) , computer science , link state routing protocol
We use the innermost kinematics of spirals to investigate whether these galaxies could host the massive black hole remnants that once powered the quasi‐stellar object (QSO) phenomenon. Hundreds of rotation curves of early‐ and late‐type spirals are used to place upper limits on the central black hole (BH) masses. We find that (i) in late‐type spirals, the central massive dark objects (MDOs) are about 10–100 times smaller than the MDOs detected in ellipticals, and (ii) in early‐type spirals, the central bodies are likely to be in the same mass range as the elliptical MDOs. As a consequence, the contribution to the QSO/active galactic nuclei (AGN) phenomenon by the BH remnants eventually hosted in spirals is negligible: ρ BH (Sb–Im)<6×10 4 M ⊙ Mpc −3 . We find several hints that the MDO mass versus bulge mass relationship is significantly steeper in spirals than in ellipticals, although the very issue of the existence of such a relation for late Hubble type objects remains open. The upper limits on the masses of the BHs resident in late‐type spirals are stringent: M BH 10 6 –10 7 M ⊙ , indicating that only low‐luminosity activity could possibly have occurred in these objects.