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Investigating the Candidate Displaced Active Galactic Nucleus in NGC 3115

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 نشر من قبل Megan Jones
 تاريخ النشر 2019
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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The nearby galaxy NGC 3115 contains a known radio-emitting, low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN), and was recently claimed to host a candidate AGN displaced 14.3 pc from the galaxys optical photocenter. Our goal is to understand whether this represents a single offset AGN, an AGN in orbit around a central black hole, or something else. We present a new, sensitive (RMS = 4.4 $mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$) 10 GHz image, which finds evidence for only one AGN. We place a stringent limit on the radio luminosity of any secondary supermassive black hole of $L_{10~rm{GHz}}<5.8times10^{33}$ ergs/s. An analysis of the relative positioning of the radio core, X-ray nucleus, and stellar bulge in this galaxy indicate that the radio source is centrally located, and not offset from the galactic bulge. This provides an argument against a single offset AGN in NGC 3115, however does not provide conclusive evidence against the purported offset AGN as an in-spiralling secondary black hole.



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