Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-07-23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Submitted to A&A Research Notes
Scientific paper
10.1051/0004-6361:20041717
We show that black holes grow substantially by accretion at close to Eddington rates. Using a complete sample of soft X-ray selected AGNs, Grupe & Mathur (2004) have shown that narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies, as a class, lie below the M_BH-sigma relation of normal galaxies. Some NLS1s, however, lie on or close to the M_BH-sigma relation. Here we show that not all NLS1s accrete at close to Eddington rates: those with low {L/L_{Eddington}} are close to the M_BH-sigma relation, and those with high {L/L_{Eddington}} are far. With various tests in this paper, we argue that black holes grow in mass substantially in their high-accretion phase and approach the M_BH-sigma relation over time. The mass growth in a low accretion phase, as in BLS1s and also in some NLS1s, appears to be insignificant. Any theoretical model attempting to explain the M_BH-sigma relation will have to explain the above observations.
Grupe Dirk
Mathur Smita
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