Super-massive black hole wake or bulgeless edge-on galaxy?

TL;DR

This paper challenges the interpretation of a stellar trail as a supermassive black hole wake, proposing instead that it is a bulgeless edge-on galaxy with properties similar to known disk galaxies.

Contribution

It offers a conventional explanation for the observed stellar trail, arguing it is a bulgeless galaxy rather than a SMBH wake, supported by detailed observational comparisons.

Findings

The stellar trail's rotation curve resembles a typical disk galaxy.

Its properties match those of IC5249, a known bulgeless galaxy.

The SMBH wake scenario faces significant physical and observational challenges.

Abstract

van Dokkum et al. (2023) reported the serendipitous discovery of a thin linear object interpreted as the trail of star-forming regions left behind by a runaway supermassive black hole (SMBH) kicked out from the center of a galaxy. Despite the undeniable interest in the idea, the actual physical interpretation is not devoid of difficulty. The wake of a SMBH produces only small perturbations on the external medium, which has to be in exceptional physical conditions to collapse gravitationally and form a long (40 kpc) massive (3e9 Msun) stellar trace in only 39 Myr. Here we offer a more conventional explanation: the stellar trail is a bulgeless galaxy viewed edge-on. This interpretation is supported by the fact that its position--velocity curve resembles a rotation curve which, together with its stellar mass, puts the object right on top of the Tully-Fisher relation characteristic of disk galaxies. Moreover, the rotation curve (Vmax sim 110 km/s), stellar mass, extension, width (z0 sim 1.2 kpc), and surface brightness profile of the object are very much like those of IC5249, a well-known local bulgeless edge-on galaxy. These observational facts are difficult to interpret within the SMBH wake scenario. We discuss in detail the pros and cons of the two options.