The SINFONI Black Hole Survey

by Dr Nina Nowak (Stockholm University, Department of Astronomy)

Friday 15 Nov 2013, 10:30 → 11:30 Europe/Stockholm

FB51

It is widely accepted that galaxies with a massive bulge component harbour a supermassive black hole (SMBH). The observational correlations between the mass of the central black hole and both the bulge mass and the velocity dispersion of the bulge strongly suggest a connection between the formation of the central black hole and the formation and evolution of their host galaxy. The SINFONI black hole survey is an observational spectroscopic survey of 33 nearby galaxies using the near-infrared integral-field spectrograph SINFONI at the VLT. It is aimed at increasing the number of SMBH mass estimates particularly at the poorly known low- and high mass ends and testing the BH-bulge formation scenarios. I will present an overview of the results of the survey, including stellar and gas kinematics, dynamical SMBH mass measurements and the role of dark matter haloes. Finally, single- and bivariate correlations between the SMBH mass and bulge properties are discussed in the context of galaxy and black hole (co-)evolution scenarios for different classes of galaxies.