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arXiv · 2608.27730

Overmassive supermassive black holes in SDSS close galaxy pairs

Maggie C. Huber·Julia M. Comerford·Joseph Simon
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Abstract

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host-galaxies coevolve through channels such as hierarchical merging and AGN feedback, establishing tight scaling relations between SMBH masses and properties of the host-galaxy. These scaling relations, particularly those with host-galaxy bulge mass (M${_\text{b}}$) and stellar velocity dispersion ($\sigma$), are widely used to estimate SMBH masses. Galaxy mergers drive gas into the centers of galaxies, enhancing SMBH growth and stellar bulge growth but not necessarily in tandem, so it is necessary to determine if galaxies undergoing a merger still follow SMBH-host-galaxy scaling relations. In this study, we explore scaling relations in galaxy mergers by taking advantage of the well-established value-added catalogs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These catalogs provide close galaxy pairs, AGN broad lines for SMBH mass measurements, and bulge-disk decomposed stellar masses. We compare SMBH mass estimates from M$_\bullet-$M${_\text{b}}$ to SMBH mass estimates from AGN broad lines and find that SMBH mass growth outpaces the bulge for AGN residing in the secondary (less massive) bulge and for smaller physical separations between galaxies in a pair. Using our full sample of close galaxy pairs, we find that M$_\bullet-$M${_\text{b}}$ and M$_\bullet- \sigma$ predict significantly different fractions of major and minor black hole mergers with M$_\bullet-$M${_\text{b}}$ predicting black hole mass ratios closer to 1:1 and $6-20\%$ more major mergers overall. These results have major implications, including for predictions of astrophysical gravitational-waves and high-redshift overmassive SMBHs.

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Maggie C. Huber, Julia M. Comerford, Joseph Simon. 2026-08-27. Overmassive supermassive black holes in SDSS close galaxy pairs. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fae975b

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