ADIABATIC BLACK HOLE GROWTH IN SÉRSIC MODELS OF ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES

We have examined the effect of slow growth of a central black hole on spherical galaxies that obey Sérsic or $R^{1/m}$ surface-brightness profiles. During such growth the actions of each stellar orbit are conserved, which allows us to compute the final distribution function (DF) if we assume that the initial DF is isotropic. We find that black hole growth leads to a central cusp or "excess light," in which the surface brightness varies with radius as $R^{-1.3}$ (with a weak dependence on Sérsic index m), the line-of-sight velocity dispersion varies as $R^{-1/2}$, and the velocity anisotropy is $\beta \simeq -0.24$ to −0.28 depending on m. The excess stellar mass in the cusp scales approximately linearly with the black hole mass, and is typically 0.5–0.85 times the black hole mass. This process may strongly influence the structure of nuclear star clusters in spheroidal galaxies if they contain black holes.