A Newsletter for Galactic Center Research Currently edited by Sera Markoff, Loránt Sjouwerman,
Joseph Lazio, Cornelia Lang, Rainer Schödel, Masaaki
Sakano & Feng Yuan
email: gcnews@aoc.nrao.edu
The Mass Function of Active Black Holes in the Local Universe
Comparison of the mass functions of inactive supermassive
black holes (analogs to Sgr~A*) and supermassive black holes in
broad-line hosting galaxies. The ratio between the
total inactive mass function and each population is shown in the
bottom panel. The vertical line indicates the point at which the
conversion from galaxy luminosity to BH mass becomes quite uncertain.
Also shown is a comparison of the inactive BH mass function (dashed)
with the active mass function in different Eddington ratio
bins (solid symbols). It is
clear that all high-mass BHs are radiating at very low Eddington
ratios. For more details, see invited article by Greene &
Ho. (Figure courtesy J. Greene)}
GCNEWS
