A Physical Framework for Grand Unification of Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Origin of the Black Hole Mass-Bulge Velocity Dispersion Relation

Abstract

It is shown that if gas accretion via a disk onto the central supermassive black hole is efficient only for a surface density Σ ≥ 10 g cm-2, the black hole mass-galactic bulge velocity dispersion relation (Tremaine et al.) is borne out and so may be the modest dispersion in that relation, in the context of hierarchical structure formation theory. The relation is not expected to evolve with redshift in this model.