We present evidence for a strong correlation between the concentration of bulges and the mass of their central supermassive black hole ( M _ { bh } ) — more concentrated bulges have more massive black holes .
Using C _ { r _ { e } } ( 1 / 3 ) from Trujillo , Graham , & Caon ( 2001b ) as a measure of bulge concentration , we find that \log ( M _ { bh } / M _ { \sun } ) = 6.81 ( \pm 0.95 ) C _ { r _ { e } } ( 1 / 3 ) +5.03 \pm 0.41 .
This correlation is shown to be marginally stronger ( Spearman ’ s r _ { s } = 0.91 ) than the relationship between the logarithm of the stellar velocity dispersion and \log M _ { bh } ( Spearman ’ s r _ { s } = 0.86 ) , and has comparable , or less , scatter ( 0.31 dex in \log M _ { bh } , which decreases to 0.19 dex when we use only those galaxies whose supermassive black hole ’ s radius of influence is resolved and remove one well understood outlying data point ) .
It would appear that the central black hole mass can be estimated from surface photometry alone , without the expensive addition of velocity dispersion determinations .