JWST Observations of the Double Nucleus in NGC 4486B: Possible Evidence for a Recent Binary SMBH Merger and Recoil

TL;DR

This study uses JWST observations to analyze the double nucleus of NGC 4486B, providing evidence for a recent binary SMBH merger and gravitational wave recoil, with implications for SMBH dynamics and galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed JWST-based analysis supporting a recent SMBH merger and recoil in NGC 4486B, highlighting the role of gravitational wave kicks in galaxy nuclei.

Findings

Evidence of a gravitational wave recoil of ~340 km/s.

Presence of an eccentric nuclear disk around the SMBH.

The SMBH returned to the galaxy center within ~30 Myr.

Abstract

A recent study of the compact elliptical galaxy NGC 4486B using JWST-NIRSpec IFU kinematics confirmed a supermassive black hole (SMBH) of mass $M_{BH}=3.6\pm0.7\times10^8$ (~8% of the stellar mass). In addition to its double nucleus, the nuclear kinematics show pronounced asymmetries: a velocity-dispersion peak displaced by 6 pc from the galaxy center and a ~16 km/s offset in the mean stellar line-of-sight velocity near the SMBH. We examine the origin of the 12 pc double nucleus and these asymmetries and show that the observations favor an SMBH surrounded by an eccentric nuclear disk (END). END formation models require the SMBH to experience a gravitational wave (GW) recoil following a binary SMBH merger. Our orbit-superposition models contain ~50% retrograde stars at the edge of the nuclear region, in striking agreement with END-formation simulations. We infer a pre-merger mass ratio q>0.15 and a recoil kick of ~340 km/s. Our N-body simulations show that with such a kick, the SMBH returns to the center within ~30 Myr. Its flat central core is also consistent with earlier binary black hole scouring. We test two alternative mechanisms-buoyancy-driven oscillations and a pre-merger SMBH binary-but neither reproduces the observed offsets, favoring the GW-kick scenario. Our direct N-body simulations further show that a prograde SMBH binary in a rotating host can stall in a corotation resonance, delaying coalescence. Thus, although NGC 4486B is an old, relaxed galaxy near the Virgo cluster center, its SMBH appears to have merged only recently, making its nucleus a rare nearby laboratory for studying post-merger SMBH dynamics.