Scaling relations between black holes and their host galaxies: comparing theoretical and observational measurements, and the impact of selection effects

Understand

We use the high-resolution simulation MassiveBlackII to examine scaling relations between black hole mass (MBH) and host galaxy properties (sigma, M*, and LV), finding good agreement with observational data, especially at the high-mass end.

• The simulations have less intrinsic scatter than observations, and the MBH-LV correlation has the largest scatter, suggesting it may the the least fundamental of the three relations.
• We find Gaussian scatter about all three relations, except among the highest mass galaxies, which host more massive black holes.
• Below z~2 the slopes for the full population remain roughly z-independent, and only steepen by 50% by z~4.