Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes: A Search in the Nearby Universe

Lena, Davide; Robinson, Andrew; Marconi, A.; Axon, D. J.; Capetti, A.; Merritt, David; Batcheldor, D.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/795/2/146

Cited by 68 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 164 publications

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“…Because a large offset from this location might disfavor a DM interpretation, we verify that the centroid of the excess is sufficiently close. An offset between the centroid of the DM halo and Sgr A* as large as approximately 2 • is consistent with numerical DM simulations, with the largest offsets tending to correlate with flatter central profiles [35,36]. An offset in the centroid position was previously reported in [13,37], while other studies of the GC excess have found it to be consistent with Sgr A*.…”

Section: B Nfw Centroidsupporting

confidence: 85%

Dark matter interpretation of the Fermi -LAT observation toward the Galactic Center

et al. 2017

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The center of the Milky Way is predicted to be the brightest region of γ-rays generated by selfannihilating dark matter particles. Excess emission about the Galactic center above predictions made for standard astrophysical processes has been observed in γ-ray data collected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. It is well described by the square of an NFW dark matter density distribution. Although other interpretations for the excess are plausible, the possibility that it arises from annihilating dark matter is valid. In this paper, we characterize the excess emission as annihilating dark matter in the framework of an effective field theory. We consider the possibility that the annihilation process is mediated by either pseudo-scalar or vector interactions and constrain the coupling strength of these interactions by fitting to the Fermi Large Area Telescope data for energies 1-100 GeV in the 15 • × 15 • region about the Galactic center using self-consistently derived interstellar emission models and point source lists for the region. The excess persists and its spectral characteristics favor a dark matter particle with a mass in the range approximately from 50 to 190 (10 to 90) GeV and annihilation cross section approximately from 1×10 −26 to 4×10 −25 (6×10 −27 to 2×10 −25 ) cm 3 /s for pseudo-scalar (vector) interactions. We map these intervals into the corresponding WIMP-neutron scattering cross sections and find that the allowed range lies well below current and projected direct detection constraints for pseudo-scalar interactions, but are typically ruled out for vector interactions.

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Section: B Nfw Centroidsupporting

confidence: 85%

Dark matter interpretation of the Fermi -LAT observation toward the Galactic Center

et al. 2017

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“…This could be especially relevant for recoils in dry merger remnants, where the BH may undergo longlived, small-amplitude oscillations in a core potential (Gualandris & Merritt 2008;Lena et al 2014). Regardless, our results suggest that if BH spins are not highly aligned, a population of spatiallyoffset recoiling AGN may be resolvable with seeing-limited observations.…”

Section: Detection and Confirmation Of Recoiling Agnmentioning

confidence: 79%

Recoiling black holes: prospects for detection and implications of spin alignment

Blecha

Sijacki

Kelley

et al. 2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

121

159

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Supermassive black hole (BH) mergers produce powerful gravitational wave (GW) emission. Asymmetry in this emission imparts a recoil kick to the merged BH, which can eject the BH from its host galaxy altogether. Recoiling BHs could be observed as offset active galactic nuclei (AGN). Several candidates have been identified, but systematic searches have been hampered by large uncertainties regarding their observability. By extracting merging BHs and host galaxy properties from the Illustris cosmological simulations, we have developed a comprehensive model for recoiling AGN. Here, for the first time, we model the effects of BH spin alignment and recoil dynamics based on the gas-richness of host galaxies. We predict that if BH spins are not highly aligned, seeing-limited observations could resolve offset AGN, making them promising targets for all-sky surveys. For randomly-oriented spins, < ∼ 10 spatially-offset AGN may be detectable in HST-COSMOS, and > 10 3 could be found with Pan-STARRS, LSST, Euclid, and WFIRST. Nearly a thousand velocity-offset AGN are predicted within the SDSS footprint; the rarity of large broad-line offsets among SDSS quasars is likely due in part to selection effects but suggests that spin alignment plays a role in suppressing recoils. Nonetheless, in our most physically motivated model where alignment occurs only in gas-rich mergers, hundreds of offset AGN should be found in all-sky surveys. Our findings strongly motivate a dedicated search for recoiling AGN.

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“…For four of these nucleated galaxies (i.e., except for NGC 4365 and NGC 5419), both inner and mid are lower than 0.20 and their central light excess is due to a point-source AGN (Dullo & Graham 2012, their Section 8). For NGC 5419, Lena et al (2014) noted that it has a double nucleus (see also Lauer et al 2005). They found that the galaxy photocenter is displaced by ∼7.5 pc and 62 pc (i.e., 0.15R b,N5419 ) from these nuclei.…”

Section: Assessment Of the Ellipticity Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Core Shapes and Orientations of Core-Sérsic Galaxies

Dullo

Graham

2014

ApJ

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The inner and outer shapes and orientations of core-Sérsic galaxies may hold important clues to their formation and evolution. We have therefore measured the central and outer ellipticities and position angles for a sample of 24 core-Sérsic galaxies using archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images and data. By selecting galaxies with core-Sérsic break radii R b -a measure of the size of their partially depleted core-that are 0. 2, we find that the ellipticities and position angles are quite robust against HST seeing. For the bulk of the galaxies, there is a good agreement between the ellipticities and position angles at the break radii and the average outer ellipticities and position angles determined over R e /2 < R < R e , where R e is the spheroids' effective half light radius. However there are some interesting differences. We find a median "inner" ellipticity at R b of med = 0.13 ± 0.01, rounder than the median ellipticity of the "outer" regions med = 0.20 ± 0.01, which is thought to reflect the influence of the central supermassive black hole at small radii. In addition, for the first time we find a trend, albeit weak (2σ significance), such that galaxies with larger (stellar deficit-to-supermassive black hole) mass ratios-thought to be a measure of the number of major dry merger events-tend to have rounder inner and outer isophotes, suggesting a connection between the galaxy shapes and their merger histories. We show that this finding is not simply reflecting the well known result that more luminous galaxies are rounder, but it is no doubt related.

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Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes: A Search in the Nearby Universe

Cited by 68 publications

References 164 publications

Dark matter interpretation of the Fermi -LAT observation toward the Galactic Center

Dark matter interpretation of the Fermi -LAT observation toward the Galactic Center

Recoiling black holes: prospects for detection and implications of spin alignment

Core Shapes and Orientations of Core-Sérsic Galaxies

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