The influence of mergers and ram-pressure stripping on black hole-bulge correlations

Abstract

We analyse the scatter in the correlation between supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and bulge stellar mass of the host galaxy, and infer that it cannot be accounted for by mergers alone. The merger-only scenario, where small galaxies merge to establish a proportionality relation between the SMBH and bulge masses, leads to a scatter around the linear proportionality line that increases with the square root of the SMBH (or bulge) mass. By examining a sample of 103 galaxies, we find that the intrinsic scatter increases more rapidly than expected from the merger-only scenario. The correlation between SMBH masses and their host galaxy properties is therefore more likely to be determined by a negative feedback mechanism that is driven by an active galactic nucleus. We find, a hint, that some galaxies with missing stellar mass reside close to the centre of clusters and speculate that ram-pressure stripping of gas off the young galaxy as it moves near the cluster centre, might explain the missing stellar mass at later times.