A HERTZSPRUNG–RUSSELL-LIKE DIAGRAM FOR GALAXIES: THE M• VERSUS MGσ2 RELATION

We show that the relation between the mass of supermassive black holes located in the center of the host galaxies and the kinetic energy of random motions of the corresponding bulges is a useful tool to study the evolution of galaxies. In the form log10(M•) = b + mlog10(MGσ2/c2), the best-fitting results for a sample of 64 galaxies of various morphological types are the slope m = 0.80 ± 0.03 and the normalization b = 4.53 ± 0.13. We note that, in analogy with the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for stars, each morphological type of galaxy generally occupies a different area in the M•–(MGσ2)/c2 plane. In particular, we find elliptical galaxies in the upper part of the line of best fit, the lenticular galaxies in the middle part, and the late-type galaxies in the lower part, the mass of the central black hole giving an estimate of the age, whereas the kinetic energy of the stellar bulges is directly connected with the temperature of each galactic system. Finally, the values of the linear correlation coefficient, the intrinsic scatter, and the χ2 obtained by using theM•–MGσ2 relation are better than the corresponding ones obtained from theM•–σ or the M•–MG relation.