The Slope of the Black Hole Mass versus Velocity Dispersion Correlation

Observations of nearby galaxies reveal a strong correlation between the mass of the central dark object M BH and the velocity dispersion σ of the host galaxy, of the form log( M BH / M ☉ ) = α + β log(σ/σ 0 ); however, published estimates of the slope β span a wide range (3.75-5.3). Merritt & Ferrar... View More