2010ApJ...717L.122R -
Astrophys. J., 717, L122-L126 (2010/July-2)
Spectropolarimetric evidence for a kicked supermassive black hole in the quasar E1821+643.
ROBINSON A., YOUNG S., AXON D.J., KHARB P. and SMITH J.E.
Abstract (from CDS):
We report spectropolarimetric observations of the quasar E1821+643 (z = 0.297), which suggest that it may be an example of gravitational recoil due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves following the merger of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary. In total flux, the broad Balmer lines are redshifted by ≈ 1000 km/s relative to the narrow lines and have highly red asymmetric profiles, whereas in polarized flux the broad Hα line exhibits a blueshift of similar magnitude and a strong blue asymmetry. We show that these observations are consistent with a scattering model in which the broad-line region has two components, moving with different bulk velocities away from the observer and toward a scattering region at rest in the host galaxy. If the high-velocity system is identified as gas bound to the SMBH, this implies that the SMBH is itself moving with a velocity ∼2100 km/s relative to the host galaxy. We discuss some implications of the recoil hypothesis and also briefly consider whether our observations can be explained in terms of scattering of broad-line emission originating from the active component of an SMBH binary, or from an outflowing wind.
Abstract Copyright:
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Journal keyword(s):
galaxies: nuclei - gravitational waves - polarization - quasars: emission lines - quasars: individual: E1821+643 - scattering
Simbad objects:
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