8 research outputs found
On the Link Between Central Black Holes, Bar Dynamics, and Dark Matter Halos in Spiral Galaxies
The discovery of a relationship between supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass
and spiral arm pitch angle (P) is evidence that SMBHs are tied to the overall
secular evolution of a galaxy. The discovery of SMBHs in late-type galaxies
with little or no bulge suggests that an underlying correlation between the
dark matter halo concentration and SMBH mass (MBH) exists, rather than between
the bulge mass and MBH. In this paper we measure P using a two-dimensional fast
fourier transform and estimate the bar pattern speeds of 40 barred spiral
galaxies from the Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. The pattern speeds were
derived by estimating the gravitational potentials of our galaxies from Ks-band
images and using them to produce dynamical simulation models. The pattern
speeds allow us to identify those galaxies with low central dark halo
densities, or fast rotating bars, while P provides an estimate of MBH. We find
that a wide range of MBH exists in galaxies with low central dark matter halo
densities, which appears to support other theoretical results. We also find
that galaxies with low central dark halo densities appear to follow more
predictable trends in P versus de Vaucouleurs morphological type (T) and bar
strength versus T than barred galaxies in general. The empirical relationship
between MBH and total gravitational mass of a galaxy (Mtot) allows us to
predict the minimum Mtot that will be observationally measured of our fast bar
galaxies. These predictions will be investigated in a subsequent paper.Comment: 17 pages, 1 table, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA