A photometric method to determine supermassive black hole masses

Abstract

We report the discovery of a strong correlation between the shape of a bulge's light-profile and the mass of its central supermassive black hole (M_bh). We find that log(M_bh/M_sun) = 2.91(+/-0.38)log(n) + 6.37(+/-0.21), where n is the Sérsic r^1/n shape index. This correlation is shown to be at least as strong as the relationship between the logarithm of the stellar velocity dispersion and log(M_bh) and has comparable scatter.