The black hole mass of low redshift radiogalaxies

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 399, Number 3, March I 2003


Page(s)		869 - 878
Section		Galactic structure and dynamics
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20021869

A&A 399, 869-878 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20021869

The black hole mass of low redshift radiogalaxies

D. Bettoni¹, R. Falomo¹, G. Fasano¹ and F. Govoni²

¹ INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova vicolo Osservatorio 5 Padova, Italy
e-mail: falomo@pd.astro.it, fasano@pd.astro.it
² Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna and Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universitá di Bologna, Italy
e-mail: fgovoni@ira.bo.cnr.it

(Received 9 July 2002 / Accepted 3 December 2002 )

Abstract
We make use of two empirical relations between the black hole mass and the global properties (bulge luminosity and stellar velocity dispersion) of nearby elliptical galaxies, to infer the mass of the central black hole ( $\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}$ ) in low redshift radiogalaxies. Using the most recent determinations of black hole masses for inactive early type galaxies we show that the bulge luminosity and the central velocity dispersion are almost equally correlated (similar scatter) with the central black-hole mass. Applying these relations to two large and homogeneous datasets of radiogalaxies we find that they host black-holes whose mass ranges from ~ $5\times10^7$ to ~ $6\times10^9\mathcal{M}_{\odot}$ (average $<{\rm Log}\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}>\,\sim$ 8.9). $\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}$ is found to be proportional to the mass of the bulge ( $\mathcal{M}_{\rm bulge}$ ). The distribution of the ratio $\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}$ / $\mathcal{M}_{\rm bulge}$ has a mean value of $8\times10^{-4}$ and shows a scatter that is consistent with that expected from the associated errors. At variance with previous claims no significant correlation is instead found between $\mathcal{M}_{\rm BH}$ (or $\mathcal{M}_{\rm bulge}$ ) and the radio power at 5 GHz.

Key words: black hole physics -- galaxies: active -- galaxies: nuclei -- radio continuum: galaxies

Offprint request: D. Bettoni, bettoni@pd.astro.it

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