2010ApJ...720..516B

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_•= m_•/{sstarf}xN ^1.08±0.04_GCwith m_•/{sstarf} = 1.7x10⁵ M_☉. 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_•-σ relation between SMBH mass and velocity dispersion σ. 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_•-σ relation.