A NEARLY NAKED SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2017-01, Vol.834 (2), p.184
• Main Authors: Condon, J. J., Darling, Jeremy, Kovalev, Y. Y., Petrov, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; black hole physics; BLACK HOLES; BRIGHTNESS; Brightness temperature; COSMIC DUST; EMISSION; Emission lines; Galactic clusters; Galactic nuclei; Galaxies; galaxies: active; galaxies: clusters: individual (ZwCl 8193); galaxies: interactions; galaxies: nuclei; galaxies: peculiar; GALAXY CLUSTERS; GALAXY NUCLEI; GHZ RANGE; INTERACTIONS; LUMINOSITY; MASS TRANSFER; RADIAL VELOCITY; RADIO GALAXIES; Radio sources (astronomy); RED SHIFT; SPACE; STELLAR WINDS; Supermassive black holes; SYMMETRY
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/834/2/184

ABSTRACT During a systematic search for supermassive black holes (SMBHs) not in galactic nuclei, we identified the compact, symmetric radio source B3 1715+425 with an emission-line galaxy offset 8.5 kpc from the nucleus of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the redshift z = 0.1754 cluster ZwCl 8193. B3 1715+425 is too bright (brightness temperature T b ∼ 3 × 10 10 K at observing frequency = 7.6 GHz ) and too luminous (1.4 GHz luminosity L 1.4 GHz ∼ 10 25 W Hz − 1 ) to be powered by anything but an SMBH, but its host galaxy is much smaller ( ∼ 0.9 kpc × 0.6 kpc full width between half-maximum points) and optically fainter (R-band absolute magnitude M r − 18.2 ) than any other radio galaxy. Its high radial velocity v r 1860 km s − 1 relative to the BCG, continuous ionized wake extending back to the BCG nucleus, and surrounding debris indicate that the radio galaxy was tidally shredded passing through the BCG core, leaving a nearly naked SMBH fleeing from the BCG with space velocity v 2000 km s − 1 . The radio galaxy has mass M 6 × 10 9 M and infrared luminosity L IR ∼ 3 × 10 11 L close to its dust Eddington limit, so it is vulnerable to further mass loss from radiative feedback.