Speaker
Description
There are two primary channels of SMBH growth: accretion of infalling material and galaxy mergers that lead to the mergers of their central black holes. The latter growth pathway results into the scaling relations between central black hole mass and intrinsic properties of the host galaxy (e.g., bulge stellar mass (Mbulge), velocity dispersion of stars in the bulge).
Our goal is to extend these scaling relations to the low-mass end (Mbh <1M MSun, including intermediate-mass black holes Mbh <200k MSun). We have identified a sample of such objects through data mining of the SDSS spectroscopic sample. We observed over 70 host galaxies with Mbh < 200k MSun from this sample using the Hubble Space Telescope. Given its unprecedented spatial resolution, we derived total bulge stellar masses from detailed 1D/2D photometric decomposition.
Our results demonstrate that host galaxies of AGN powered by low-mass BHs follow the same scaling relations established for more massive SMBHs. This supports the scenario of BH–host galaxy co-evolution even in the low-mass regime, predominantly indicating that major mergers remain a dominant growth channel. Furthermore, we did not find any difference in the behavior of the Mbh–Mbulge scaling relation between low- and high-accretion-rate subsamples of galaxies.