Science with an ngVLA: Offset Active Galactic Nuclei

TL;DR

The paper discusses how the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) can be used to identify and confirm offset active galactic nuclei caused by SMBH recoil kicks, advancing multi-messenger astronomy.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of ngVLA to detect and confirm offset AGN across various scales, enabling new insights into SMBH evolution and gravitational wave sources.

Findings

ngVLA can identify offset AGN from sub-parsec to kiloparsec scales.

Detection of offset AGN constrains SMBH binary evolution.

Facilitates multi-messenger studies in low-frequency GW astronomy.

Abstract

Gravitational-wave (GW) and gravitational slingshot recoil kicks, which are natural products of SMBH evolution in merging galaxies, can produce active galactic "nuclei" that are offset from the centers of their host galaxies. Detections of offset AGN would provide key constraints on SMBH binary mass and spin evolution and on GW event rates. Although numerous offset AGN candidates have been identified, none have been definitively confirmed. The ngVLA offers unparalleled capabilities to identify and confirm candidate offset AGN from sub-parsec to kiloparsec scales, opening a new avenue for multi-messenger studies in the dawn of low-frequency GW astronomy.