A CORRELATION BETWEEN CENTRAL SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER SYSTEMS OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

Elliptical, lenticular, and early-type spiral galaxies show a remarkably tight power-law correlation between the mass M of their central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the number N-GC of globular clusters (GCs): M-center dot = m(center dot)/(star) x N-GC(1.08 +/- 0.04) with m(center dot)/(star) = 1.7 x 10(5) M-circle dot. Thus, to a good approximation the SMBH mass is the same as the total mass of the GCs. Based on a limited sample of 13 galaxies, this relation appears to be a better predictor of SMBH mass (rms scatter 0.2 dex) than the M-center dot-sigma relation between SMBH mass and velocity dispersion a. The small scatter reflects the fact that galaxies with high GC specific frequency S-N tend to harbor SMBHs that are more massive than expected from the M-center dot-sigma relation.