Evidence for a steeper SMBH-Bulge mass relationship extended to low masses using TDE host galaxies

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ramsden, Paige, Nicholl, Matt, McGee, Sean L., Mummery, Andrew
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ramsden, Paige
Nicholl, Matt
McGee, Sean L.
Mummery, Andrew
author_facet Ramsden, Paige
Nicholl, Matt
McGee, Sean L.
Mummery, Andrew
contents Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are excellent tools for probing low mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that may otherwise remain undetected. Here, we present an extended SMBH--Bulge mass scaling relationship using these lower mass TDE black holes and their host galaxies. Bulge masses are derived using Prospector fits to UV-MIR spectral energy distributions for the hosts of 40 TDEs that have a detected late-time UV/optical plateau emission, from which a SMBH mass is derived. Overall, we find that TDE plateaus are a successful method for probing BH scaling relations. We combine the observed TDE sample with a higher mass SMBH sample and extend the known relationship, recovering a steeper slope ($m = 1.34 \pm 0.03$) than current literature estimates, which focus on the high mass regime. For the TDE only sample, we measure an equally significant but shallower relationship with a power-law slope of $m = 1.17 \pm 0.10$ and significance $<0.001$. Forward modelling is used to determine whether known selection effects can explain both the comparatively flatter TDE only relation and the overall steepening across the full SMBH mass range. We find that the flattening at TDE masses can be accounted for, however the steepening can not. It appears that if a single slope extends for the whole BH mass range, it must be steeper to include the TDE population.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_16155
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evidence for a steeper SMBH-Bulge mass relationship extended to low masses using TDE host galaxies
Ramsden, Paige
Nicholl, Matt
McGee, Sean L.
Mummery, Andrew
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are excellent tools for probing low mass supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that may otherwise remain undetected. Here, we present an extended SMBH--Bulge mass scaling relationship using these lower mass TDE black holes and their host galaxies. Bulge masses are derived using Prospector fits to UV-MIR spectral energy distributions for the hosts of 40 TDEs that have a detected late-time UV/optical plateau emission, from which a SMBH mass is derived. Overall, we find that TDE plateaus are a successful method for probing BH scaling relations. We combine the observed TDE sample with a higher mass SMBH sample and extend the known relationship, recovering a steeper slope ($m = 1.34 \pm 0.03$) than current literature estimates, which focus on the high mass regime. For the TDE only sample, we measure an equally significant but shallower relationship with a power-law slope of $m = 1.17 \pm 0.10$ and significance $<0.001$. Forward modelling is used to determine whether known selection effects can explain both the comparatively flatter TDE only relation and the overall steepening across the full SMBH mass range. We find that the flattening at TDE masses can be accounted for, however the steepening can not. It appears that if a single slope extends for the whole BH mass range, it must be steeper to include the TDE population.
title Evidence for a steeper SMBH-Bulge mass relationship extended to low masses using TDE host galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16155