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: rho(BH)(Sb-Im) < 6 x 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 less than or equal to 10(6)-10(7) M., indicating that only low-luminosity activity could possibly have occurred in these objects.
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11767/12919
Titolo: | The masses of black holes in the nuclei of spirals |
Autori: | Salucci P; Ratnam C; Monaco P; Danese L |
Rivista: | |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2000 |
Volume: | 317 |
Fascicolo: | 2 |
Pagina iniziale: | 488 |
Pagina finale: | 496 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03622.x |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Journal article |