On the Cusp around Central Black Holes in Luminous Elliptical Galaxies

In this Letter, we show that a massive black hole (MBH) that falls into the center of a galaxy on the dynamical timescale leaves a weak cusp (rho~r-1&solm0;2) around it, which is in good agreement with the recent observations of luminous elliptical galaxies by the Hubble Space Telescope. Such an event is a natural outcome of the merging of two galaxies that have central MBHs. This is the only known mechanism for forming weak cusps in luminous elliptical galaxies. Therefore, the existence of the weak cusps indicates that the central black holes of luminous elliptical galaxies have fallen to the center from outside, most likely during a major merger event.