Chandra and HST Observations of Radio-Selected (Wandering) Massive Black Hole Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Sturm, Megan R., Reines, Amy E., Lohfink, Anne M., Bogdan, Akos, Kraft, Ralph, Stern, Daniel, Connor, Thomas, Darling, Jeremy, Molina, Mallory
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Sturm, Megan R.
Reines, Amy E.
Lohfink, Anne M.
Bogdan, Akos
Kraft, Ralph
Stern, Daniel
Connor, Thomas
Darling, Jeremy
Molina, Mallory
author_facet Sturm, Megan R.
Reines, Amy E.
Lohfink, Anne M.
Bogdan, Akos
Kraft, Ralph
Stern, Daniel
Connor, Thomas
Darling, Jeremy
Molina, Mallory
contents We present Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) follow-up observations of 12 dwarf galaxies from Reines et al. (2020) that are potential hosts of radio-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs), eight of which are non-nuclear and possible ``wandering" black holes (BHs). Our multi-wavelength analysis indicates a heterogeneous sample with five radio sources detected at both X-ray and optical wavelengths within positional uncertainties and non-detections for the remaining objects. Of the radio objects detected in the X-ray/optical, three have multi-wavelength evidence for hosting nuclear massive BHs and one object is consistent with an extreme compact starburst. Only one of the off-nuclear radio sources has a significant optical counterpart and we present Palomar spectroscopy that identifies this object as a background AGN. We cannot definitively determine if the seven remaining off-nuclear radio sources are wandering massive BHs in the target dwarf galaxies or background AGNs, although the three sources with the largest offsets have compact radio cores detected with the Very Large Baseline Array and are consistent with expectations for background AGNs (Sargent et al 2022). Our HST sensitivity limits also allow for wandering massive BHs in the target dwarf galaxies that are hosted by stellar clusters with masses $\lesssim 10^6 M_\odot$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09641
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Chandra and HST Observations of Radio-Selected (Wandering) Massive Black Hole Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies
Sturm, Megan R.
Reines, Amy E.
Lohfink, Anne M.
Bogdan, Akos
Kraft, Ralph
Stern, Daniel
Connor, Thomas
Darling, Jeremy
Molina, Mallory
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) follow-up observations of 12 dwarf galaxies from Reines et al. (2020) that are potential hosts of radio-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs), eight of which are non-nuclear and possible ``wandering" black holes (BHs). Our multi-wavelength analysis indicates a heterogeneous sample with five radio sources detected at both X-ray and optical wavelengths within positional uncertainties and non-detections for the remaining objects. Of the radio objects detected in the X-ray/optical, three have multi-wavelength evidence for hosting nuclear massive BHs and one object is consistent with an extreme compact starburst. Only one of the off-nuclear radio sources has a significant optical counterpart and we present Palomar spectroscopy that identifies this object as a background AGN. We cannot definitively determine if the seven remaining off-nuclear radio sources are wandering massive BHs in the target dwarf galaxies or background AGNs, although the three sources with the largest offsets have compact radio cores detected with the Very Large Baseline Array and are consistent with expectations for background AGNs (Sargent et al 2022). Our HST sensitivity limits also allow for wandering massive BHs in the target dwarf galaxies that are hosted by stellar clusters with masses $\lesssim 10^6 M_\odot$.
title Chandra and HST Observations of Radio-Selected (Wandering) Massive Black Hole Candidates in Dwarf Galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09641