We describe ongoing searches for intermediate-mass black holes with M BH≈ 10–105 M⊙.
We review a range of search mechanisms, both dynamical and those that rely on accretion …

We review the current knowledge about nuclear star clusters (NSCs), the spectacularly
dense and massive assemblies of stars found at the centers of most galaxies. Recent …

We summarize what large surveys of the contemporary Universe have taught us about the
physics and phenomenology of the processes that link the formation and evolution of …

Observations of galaxy isophotes, long-slit kinematics, and high-resolution photometry
suggested a possible dichotomy between two distinct classes of elliptical galaxies. But these …

Supermassive black holes (BHs) have been found in 85 galaxies by dynamical modeling of
spatially resolved kinematics. The Hubble Space Telescope revolutionized BH research by …

We derive improved versions of the relations between supermassive black hole mass (M
BH) and host-galaxy bulge velocity dispersion (σ) and luminosity (L; the M–σ and M–L …

According to the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology, present-day galaxies with stellar
masses M⋆> 10 11 M⊙ should contain a sizable fraction of dark matter within their stellar …

New surface photometry of all known elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster is combined with
published data to derive composite profiles of brightness, ellipticity, position angle, isophote …

We investigate the well-known correlations between the dynamical mass-to-light ratio (M/L)
and other global observables of elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) galaxies. We construct two …

Two-dimensional stellar kinematics of 48 representative elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0)
galaxies obtained with the SAURON integral-field spectrograph reveal that early-type …