Black Holes of All Masses: Understanding the Fundamental Correlations
Karl Gebhardt (University of Texas)
Recent observational and theoretical work suggest that black holes are
essential components of galaxies. In fact, they may be one of the keys
to understanding how galaxies form and evolve. I will give a general
overview of the observational results for black holes in galaxies,
including discussion of their effects on the stellar orbital
distribution. I will focus the talk on the two extreme mass ranges,
from whether globular clusters contain black holes up to black holes
in brightest cluster galaxies. The present results suggests that the
black hole correlations span over seven orders of mass. This
concordance suggests a more intimate connection between these
different types of systems than what has previously been thought. I
will also discuss the future of black hole studies, from space and
from the ground.
