Supermassive black holes (BHs) have been found in 85 galaxies by dynamical modeling of spatially resolved kinematics. The Hubble Space Telescope revolutionized BH research by advancing the subject from its proof-of-concept phase into quantitative studies of BH demographics. Most influential was the discovery of a tight correlation between BH mass and the velocity dispersion σ of the bulge component of the host galaxy. Together with similar correlations with bulge luminosity and mass, this led to the widespread belief that BHs and bulges coevolve by regulating each other's growth. Conclusions based on one set of correlations from in brightest cluster ellipticals to in the smallest galaxies dominated BH work for more than a decade. New results are now replacing this simple story with a richer and more plausible picture in which BHs correlate differently with different galaxy components. A reasonable aim is to use this progress to refine our understanding of BH-galaxy coevolution. BHs with masses of 105−106M...

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/suppl/10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101811/suppl_file/aa51_kormendy_supmat.pdf

Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies

Radiation, winds, and jets from the active nucleus of a massive galaxy can interact with its interstellar medium, and this can lead to ejection or heating of the gas. This terminates star formation in the galaxy and stifles accretion onto the black hole. Such active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback can account for the observed proportionality between the central black hole and the host galaxy mass. Direct observational evidence for the radiative or quasar mode of feedback, which occurs when AGN are very luminous, has been difficult to obtain but is accumulating from a few exceptional objects. Feedback from the kinetic or radio mode, which uses the mechanical energy of radio-emitting jets often seen when AGN are operating at a lower level, is common in massive elliptical galaxies. This mode is well observed directly through X-ray observations of the central galaxies of cool core clusters in the form of bubbles in the hot surrounding medium. The energy flow, which is roughly continuous, heats the hot intraclu...

Observational Evidence of Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback

This is the Supplemental Material to Kormendy and Ho 2013, ARAA, 51, 511 (arXiv:1304.7762). Section S1 summarizes indirect methods that are used to estimate black hole (BH) masses for galaxies with active nuclei (AGNs). Section S2 lists the observational criteria that are used to classify classical and pseudo bulges. The (pseudo)bulge classifications used in the main paper are not based on physical interpretation; rather, they are based on these observational criteria. Section S3 supplements the BH database in Section 5 of the main paper and Section S4 here. It discusses corrections to galaxy and BH parameters, most importantly to 2MASS K-band apparent magnitudes. It presents evidence that corrections are needed because 2MASS misses light at large radii when the images of galaxies subtend large angles on the sky or have shallow outer brightness gradients. Section S4 reproduces essentially verbatim the first part of Section 5 in the main paper, the BH database. It includes the list of BH and host-galaxy properties (Tables 2 and 3). Its most important purpose is to provide all of the notes on individual objects.

Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies: Supplemental Material

We present a two-dimensional (2D) fitting algorithm (GALFIT, ver. 3) with new capabilities to study the structural components of galaxies and other astronomical objects in digital images. Our technique improves on previous 2D fitting algorithms by allowing for irregular, curved, logarithmic and power-law spirals, ring, and truncated shapes in otherwise traditional parametric functions like the Sersic, Moffat, King, Ferrer, etc., profiles. One can mix and match these new shape features freely, with or without constraints, and apply them to an arbitrary number of model components of numerous profile types, so as to produce realistic-looking galaxy model images. Yet, despite the potential for extreme complexity, the meaning of the key parameters like the Sersic index, effective radius, or luminosity remains intuitive and essentially unchanged. The new features have an interesting potential for use to quantify the degree of asymmetry of galaxies, to quantify low surface brightness tidal features beneath and beyond luminous galaxies, to allow more realistic decompositions of galaxy subcomponents in the presence of strong rings and spiral arms, and to enable ways to gauge the uncertainties when decomposing galaxy subcomponents. We illustrate these new features by way of several case studies that display various levels of complexity.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-6256/139/6/2097/pdf

Detailed decomposition of galaxy images. ii. beyond axisymmetric models

Aims. Many topical astrophysical research areas, such as the properties of planet host stars, the nature of the progenitors of different types of supernovae and gamma ray bursts, and the evolution of galaxies, require complete and homogeneous sets of stellar models at different metallicities in order to be studied during the whole of cosmic history. We present here a first set of models for solar metallicity, where the effects of rotation are accounted for in a homogeneous way.Methods. We computed a grid of 48 different stellar evolutionary tracks, both rotating and non-rotating, at Z  = 0.014, spanning a wide mass range from 0.8 to 120 M ⊙ . For each of the stellar masses considered, electronic tables provide data for 400 stages along the evolutionary track and at each stage, a set of 43 physical data are given. These grids thus provide an extensive and detailed data basis for comparisons with the observations. The rotating models start on the zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) with a rotation rate υ ini /υ crit  = 0.4. The evolution is computed until the end of the central carbon-burning phase, the early asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase, or the core helium-flash for, respectively, the massive, intermediate, and both low and very low mass stars. The initial abundances are those deduced by Asplund and collaborators, which best fit the observed abundances of massive stars in the solar neighbourhood. We update both the opacities and nuclear reaction rates, and introduce new prescriptions for the mass-loss rates as stars approach the Eddington and/or the critical velocity. We account for both atomic diffusion and magnetic braking in our low-mass star models.Results. The present rotating models provide a good description of the average evolution of non-interacting stars. In particular, they reproduce the observed main-sequence width, the positions of the red giant and supergiant stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, the observed surface compositions and rotational velocities. Very interestingly, the enhancement of the mass loss during the red-supergiant stage, when the luminosity becomes supra-Eddington in some outer layers, help models above 15−20 M ⊙ to lose a significant part of their hydrogen envelope and evolve back into the blue part of the HR diagram. This result has interesting consequences for the blue to red supergiant ratio, the minimum mass for stars to become Wolf-Rayet stars, and the maximum initial mass of stars that explode as type II−P supernovae.

/pdf/grids-of-stellar-models-with-rotation-i-models-from-0-8-to-3bjuk0gnjq.pdf

Grids of stellar models with rotation - I. Models from 0.8 to 120 M⊙ at solar metallicity (Z = 0.014)

New surface photometry of all known elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster is combined with published data to derive composite profiles of brightness, ellipticity, position angle, isophote shape, and color over large radius ranges These provide enough leverage to show that S?rsic log I r 1/n functions fit the brightness profiles I(r) of nearly all ellipticals remarkably well over large dynamic ranges Therefore, we can confidently identify departures from these profiles that are diagnostic of galaxy formation Two kinds of departures are seen at small radii All 10 of our ellipticals with total absolute magnitudes MVT ? ?2166 have cuspy cores?missing light?at small radii Cores are well known and naturally scoured by binary black holes (BHs) formed in dissipationless (dry) mergers All 17 ellipticals with ?2154 ? MVT ? ?1553 do not have cores We find a new distinct component in these galaxies: all coreless ellipticals in our sample have extra light at the center above the inward extrapolation of the outer S?rsic profile In large ellipticals, the excess light is spatially resolved and resembles the central components predicted in numerical simulations of mergers of galaxies that contain gas In the simulations, the gas dissipates, falls toward the center, undergoes a starburst, and builds a compact stellar component that, as in our observations, is distinct from the S?rsic-function main body of the elliptical But ellipticals with extra light also contain supermassive BHs We suggest that the starburst has swamped core scouring by binary BHs That is, we interpret extra light components as a signature of formation in dissipative (wet) mergers Besides extra light, we find three new aspects to the (E-E) dichotomy into two types of elliptical galaxies Core galaxies are known to be slowly rotating, to have relatively anisotropic velocity distributions, and to have boxy isophotes We show that they have S?rsic indices n > 4 uncorrelated with MVT  They also are ?-element enhanced, implying short star-formation timescales And their stellar populations have a variety of ages but mostly are very old Extra light ellipticals generally rotate rapidly, are more isotropic than core Es, and have disky isophotes We show that they have n 3 ? 1 almost uncorrelated with MVT and younger and less ?-enhanced stellar populations These are new clues to galaxy formation We suggest that extra light ellipticals got their low S?rsic indices by forming in relatively few binary mergers, whereas giant ellipticals have n > 4 because they formed in larger numbers of mergers of more galaxies at once plus later heating during hierarchical clustering We confirm that core Es contain X-ray-emitting gas whereas extra light Es generally do not This leads us to suggest why the E-E dichotomy arose If energy feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) requires a working surface of hot gas, then this is present in core galaxies but absent in extra light galaxies We suggest that AGN energy feedback is a strong function of galaxy mass: it is weak enough in small Es not to prevent merger starbursts but strong enough in giant Es and their progenitors to make dry mergers dry and to protect old stellar populations from late star formation Finally, we verify that there is a strong dichotomy between elliptical and spheroidal galaxies Their properties are consistent with our understanding of their different formation processes: mergers for ellipticals and conversion of late-type galaxies into spheroidals by environmental effects and by energy feedback from supernovae In an appendix, we develop machinery to get realistic error estimates for S?rsic parameters even when they are strongly coupled And we discuss photometric dynamic ranges necessary to get robust results from S?rsic fits

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0067-0049/182/1/216/pdf

Structure and formation of elliptical and spheroidal galaxies

In this paper, we study the properties of pseudobulges (bulges that appear similar to disk galaxies) and classical bulges (bulges which appear similar to E-type galaxies) in bulge-disk decompositions. We show that the distribution of bulge Sersic indices, nb , is bimodal, and this bimodality correlates with the morphology of the bulge. Pseudobulges have nb 2 and classical bulges have nb 2 with little to no overlap. Also, pseudobulges do not follow the correlations of Sersic index with structural parameters or the photometric projections of the fundamental plane in the same way that classical bulges and elliptical galaxies do. We find that pseudobulges are systematically flatter than classical bulges and thus more disk-like in both their morphology and shape. We do not find significant differences between different bulge morphologies which we are collectively calling pseudobulges (nuclear spirals, nuclear rings, nuclear bars, and nuclear patchiness); they appear to behave similarly in all parameter correlations. In the Sersic index, flattening, and bulge-to-total ratio, the distinction appears to be between classical bulges and pseudobulges, not between different pseudobulge morphologies. The Sersic index of the pseudobulges does not correlate with B/T, in contrast to classical bulges. Also, the half-light radius of the pseudobulge correlates with the scale length of the disk; this is not the case for classical bulges. The correlation of Sersic index and scale lengths with bulge morphology suggests that secular evolution is creating pseudobulges with low-Sersic index and that other processes (e.g., major mergers) are responsible for the higher Sersic index in classical bulges and elliptical galaxies.

/pdf/the-structure-of-classical-bulges-and-pseudobulges-the-link-339usivkg3.pdf

The Structure of Classical Bulges and Pseudobulges: The Link Between Pseudobulges and Sérsic Index

We investigate scaling relations of bulges using bulge-disk decompositions at 3.6 ?m and present bulge classifications for 173 E-Sd galaxies within 20?Mpc. Pseudobulges and classical bulges are identified using S?rsic index, Hubble Space Telescope morphology, and star formation activity (traced by 8 ?m emission). In the near-IR pseudobulges have nb 2, as found in the optical. S?rsic index and morphology are essentially equivalent properties for bulge classification purposes. We confirm, using a much more robust sample, that the S?rsic index of pseudobulges is uncorrelated with other bulge structural properties, unlike for classical bulges and elliptical galaxies. Also, the half-light radius of pseudobulges is not correlated with any other bulge property. We also find a new correlation between surface brightness and pseudobulge luminosity; pseudobulges become more luminous as they become more dense. Classical bulges follow the well-known scaling relations between surface brightness, luminosity, and half-light radius that are established by elliptical galaxies. We show that those pseudobulges (as indicated by S?rsic index and nuclear morphology) that have low specific star formation rates are very similar to models of galaxies in which both a pseudobulge and classical bulge exist. Therefore, pseudobulge identification that relies only on structural indicators is incomplete. Our results, especially those on scaling relations, imply that pseudobulges are very different types of objects than elliptical galaxies.

Bulges of nearby galaxies with Spitzer: scaling relations in pseudobulges and classical bulges

We present an inventory of galaxy bulge types (elliptical galaxy, classical bulge, pseudobulge, and bulgeless galaxy) in a volume-limited sample within the local 11 Mpc sphere using Spitzer 3.6 μm and Hubble Space Telescope data. We find that whether counting by number, star formation rate, or stellar mass, the dominant galaxy type in the local universe has pure disk characteristics (either hosting a pseudobulge or being bulgeless). Galaxies that contain either a pseudobulge or no bulge combine to account for over 80% of the number of galaxies above a stellar mass of 109 M ☉. Classical bulges and elliptical galaxies account for ~1/4, and disks for ~3/4 of the stellar mass in the local 11 Mpc. About 2/3 of all star formation in the local volume takes place in galaxies with pseudobulges. Looking at the fraction of galaxies with different bulge types as a function of stellar mass, we find that the frequency of classical bulges strongly increases with stellar mass, and comes to dominate above 1010.5 M ☉. Galaxies with pseudobulges dominate at 109.5-1010.5 M ☉. Yet lower-mass galaxies are most likely to be bulgeless. If pseudobulges are not a product of mergers, then the frequency of pseudobulges in the local universe poses a challenge for galaxy evolution models.

/pdf/demographics-of-bulge-types-within-11-mpc-and-implications-3psxk2ctac.pdf

Demographics of bulge types within 11 Mpc and implications for galaxy evolution

The global colors and structure of galaxies have recently been shown to follow a bimodal distribution: a "red sequence" populated prototypically by early-type galaxies, and a "blue cloud" whose typical objects are late-type disk galaxies. Intermediate-type (Sa-Sbc) galaxies populate both regions. It has been suggested that this bimodality reflects the two-component nature of disk-bulge galaxies. However, it has now been established that there are two types of bulges: "classical bulges" that are dynamically hot systems resembling (little) ellipticals, and "pseudobulges," dynamically cold, flattened, disklike structures that could not have formed via violent relaxation. Given the different formation mechanisms of these bulges, the question is whether at types Sa-Sbc, where both bulge types are found, the red-blue dichotomy separates galaxies at some value of the disk-to-bulge ratio, B/T, or whether it separates galaxies of different bulge type, irrespective of B/T. Here we identify classical bulges and pseudobulges morphologically with HST images in a sample of nearby galaxies. Surface photometry reveals that (1) the red-blue dichotomy is a function of bulge type: at the same B/T, pseudobulges are in globally blue galaxies and classical bulges are in globally red galaxies; (2) bulge type also predicts where the galaxy lies in other (bimodal) global structural parameters: global Sersic index and central surface brightness. Hence, the red-blue dichotomy is not due to decreasing bulge prominence alone, and the bulge type of a galaxy carries significance for the galaxy's evolutionary history. Classical bulges are thought to indicate that a galaxy has undergone violent relaxation, e.g., during a major merger in its past, while pseudobulges are disk components and therefore indicate a disk-only galaxy that has not suffered a major merger. The circumstances that lead to these differing histories also cause the color-structural bimodality.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/519441/pdf

David B. Fisher

Papers

Structure and formation of elliptical and spheroidal galaxies

The Structure of Classical Bulges and Pseudobulges: The Link Between Pseudobulges and Sérsic Index

Bulges of nearby galaxies with Spitzer: scaling relations in pseudobulges and classical bulges

Demographics of bulge types within 11 Mpc and implications for galaxy evolution

A Connection between Bulge Properties and the Bimodality of Galaxies