A RUNAWAY BLACK HOLE IN COSMOS: GRAVITATIONAL WAVE OR SLINGSHOT RECOIL?
- Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, Heidelberg, D-69117 (Germany)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
- Astronomy Department, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Max Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
- LBNL and BCCP, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
- INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, I-00040 Monteporzio Catone (Italy)
- California Institute of Technology, MC 105-24, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universita degli Studi di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna (Italy)
We present a detailed study of a peculiar source detected in the COSMOS survey at z = 0.359. Source CXOC J100043.1+020637, also known as CID-42, has two compact optical sources embedded in the same galaxy. The distance between the two, measured in the HST/ACS image, is 0.''495 {+-} 0.''005 that, at the redshift of the source, corresponds to a projected separation of 2.46 {+-} 0.02 kpc. A large ({approx}1200 km s{sup -1}) velocity offset between the narrow and broad components of H{beta} has been measured in three different optical spectra from the VLT/VIMOS and Magellan/IMACS instruments. CID-42 is also the only X-ray source in COSMOS, having in its X-ray spectra a strong redshifted broad absorption iron line and an iron emission line, drawing an inverted P-Cygni profile. The Chandra and XMM-Newton data show that the absorption line is variable in energy by {Delta}E = 500 eV over four years and that the absorber has to be highly ionized in order not to leave a signature in the soft X-ray spectrum. That these features-the morphology, the velocity offset, and the inverted P-Cygni profile-occur in the same source is unlikely to be a coincidence. We envisage two possible explanations, both exceptional, for this system: (1) a gravitational wave (GW) recoiling black hole (BH), caught 1-10 Myr after merging; or (2) a Type 1/Type 2 system in the same galaxy where the Type 1 is recoiling due to the slingshot effect produced by a triple BH system. The first possibility gives us a candidate GW recoiling BH with both spectroscopic and imaging signatures. In the second case, the X-ray absorption line can be explained as a BAL-like outflow from the foreground nucleus (a Type 2 AGN) at the rearer one (a Type 1 AGN), which illuminates the otherwise undetectable wind, giving us the first opportunity to show that fast winds are present in obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and possibly universal in AGNs.
- OSTI ID:
- 21452887
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 717, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/717/1/209; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ABSORPTION
BLACK HOLES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
EMISSION
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
IRON
MORPHOLOGY
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
SOFT X RADIATION
UNIVERSE
X-RAY SPECTRA
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
METALS
RADIATIONS
SORPTION
SPECTRA
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
X RADIATION