“Black Hole Masses in Massive Halos”

Whether or not the mass of a supermassive black hole (MBH) is causally linked to the mass of the halo around it (Mhalo) has been hotly debated for at least two decades. I will present evidence supporting a direct proportionality between MBH and the binding energy of the halo’s baryons that extends from Milky Way scales up to at least Mhalo ~ 10^14 MSun. That relationship is consistent with models of black-hole feedback that rely on cumulative kinetic energy injection to quench star formation by lifting the halo’s baryons. I will also show why some cosmological simulations do not reproduce the observed MBH-Mhalo relationship, even though baryon lifting through cumulative kinetic energy injection appears to be what quenches star formation in those simulations.

https://gmvoit.org/