Inspiralling Supermassive Black Holes: A New Signpost for Galaxy Mergers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectroscopic method to identify galaxy mergers by detecting inspiralling supermassive black holes through velocity offsets in AGN emission lines, revealing a significant merger rate among red galaxies.

Contribution

The study presents a novel spectroscopic technique for identifying galaxy mergers via SMBH dynamics, providing new insights into merger rates and their role in triggering AGN activity.

Findings

Approximately 30% of red galaxies host merging SMBHs.

Merger rate estimated at about 3 mergers per gigayear for red galaxies.

Half of the AGN-hosting red galaxies are merger remnants.

Abstract

We present a new technique for observationally identifying galaxy mergers spectroscopically rather than through host galaxy imaging. Our technique exploits the dynamics of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) powering active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in merger-remnant galaxies. Because structure in the universe is built up through galaxy mergers and nearly all galaxies host a central SMBH, some galaxies should possess two SMBHs near their centers as the result of a recent merger. These SMBHs spiral to the center of the resultant merger-remnant galaxy, and one or both of the SMBHs may power AGNs. Using the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, we have examined 1881 red galaxies, of which 91 exhibit [O III] and Hbeta emission lines indicative of Seyfert 2 activity. Of these, 32 AGNs have [O III] emission-line redshifts significantly different from the redshifts of the host galaxies' stars, corresponding to velocity offsets of ~50 km/s to ~300 km/s. Two of these AGNs exhibit double-peaked [O III] emission lines, while the remaining 30 AGNs each exhibit a single set of velocity-offset [O III] emission lines. After exploring a variety of physical models for these velocity offsets, we argue that the most likely explanation is inspiralling SMBHs in merger-remnant galaxies. Based on this interpretation, we find that roughly half of the red galaxies hosting AGNs are also merger remnants, which implies that mergers may trigger AGN activity in red galaxies. The AGN velocity offsets we find imply a merger fraction of ~30% and a merger rate of ~3 mergers/Gyr for red galaxies at redshifts 0.34 < z < 0.82.