RELATION BETWEEN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS AND SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES IN ELLIPTICALS AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE BLACK HOLE FUNDAMENTAL PLANE

摘要

We analyze the relation between the mass of the central supermassive black hole (M_(BH)) and the number of globular clusters (N_(GC)) in elliptical galaxies and bulges as a ramification of the black hole fundamental plane, the theoretically predicted and observed multi-variable correlation between M_(BH) and bulge binding energy. Although the tightness of the M_(BH)—N_(GC) correlation suggests an unlikely causal link between supermassive black holes and globular clusters (GCs), such a correspondence can exhibit small scatter even if the physical relationship is indirect. We show that the relatively small scatter of the M_(BH)—N_(GC) relation owes to the mutual residual correlation of M_(BH) and N_(GC) with stellar mass when the velocity dispersion is held fixed. Thus, present observations lend evidence for feedback-regulated models in which the bulge binding energy is most important; they do not necessarily imply any "special" connection between GCs and M_(BH). This raises the question of why N_(GC) traces the formation of ellipticals and bulges sufficiently well to be correlated with binding energy.