A Ringed Dwarf LINER 1 Galaxy Hosting an Intermediate-mass Black Hole with Large-scale Rotation-like H{alpha} Emission


Abstract in English

We report the discovery of a 20-kpc-sized H{alpha} emission in SDSS J083803.68+540642.0, a ringed dwarf galaxy (M$_V$ = -17.89 mag) hosting an accreting intermediate-mass black hole at z=0.02957. Analysis of the HST images indicates that it is an early-type galaxy with a featureless low-surface brightness disk ({mu}0 = 20.39 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ in the V band) and a prominent, relatively red bulge (V - I = 2.03, Re = 0.28 kpc or 0.48) that accounts for ~81% of the total light in the I band. A circumgalactic ring of a diameter 16 kpc is also detected, with a disperse shape on its south side. The optical emission lines reveal the nucleus to be a broad-line LINER. Our MMT longslit observation indicates that the kinematics of the extended H{alpha} emission is consistent with a rotational gaseous disk, with a mean blueshifted velocity of 162 km s$^{-1}$ and mean redshifted velocity of 86 km s$^{-1}$ . According to our photoionization calculations, the large-scale H{alpha} emission is unlikely to be powered by the central nucleus or by hot evolved (post-AGB) stars interspersed in the old stellar populations, but by in situ star formation; this is vindicated by the line-ratio diagnostic of the extended emission. We propose that both the ring and large-scale H{alpha}-emitting gas are created by the tidal accretion in a collision-and then merger-with a gas-rich galaxy of a comparable mass.

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