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        Spectropolarimetric evidence for a kicked supermassive black hole in the quasar E1821+643

        Author
        Robinson, A.
        Young, S.
        Axon, D.J.
        Kharb, P.
        Smith, J.E.
        Attention
        2299/4664
        Abstract
        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 approximate to 1000 km s(-1) relative to the narrow lines and have highly red asymmetric profiles, whereas in polarized flux the broad Ha 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 similar to 2100 km s(-1) 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.
        Publication date
        2010
        Published in
        Astrophysical Journal Letters
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/717/2/L122
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/4664
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