Coevolution (or not) of supermassive black holes and host galaxies: Black hole scaling relations are not biased by selection effects

Abstract

The oral version of this paper summarized Kormendy & Ho 2013, ARA&A, 51, 511. However, earlier speakers at this Symposium worried that selection effects bias the derivation of black hole scaling relations. I therefore added – and this proceedings paper emphasizes – a discussion of why we can be confident that selection effects do not bias the observed correlations between BH mass M• and the luminosity, stellar mass, and velocity dispersion of host ellipticals and classical bulges. These are the only galaxy components that show tight BH-host correlations. The scatter plots of M• with host properties for pseudobulges and disks are upper envelopes of scatter that does extend to lower BH masses. BH correlations are most consistent with a picture in which BHs coevolve only with classical bulges and ellipticals. Four physical regimes of coevolution (or not) are suggested by Kormendy & Ho 2013 and are summarized here.