The Kinematics and Ionization Structure of the Extended Emission Line Region of QSO E1821+643

Abstract

The most luminous quasars are created by major, gas-rich mergers and E1821+643, an optically luminous quasar situated at the center of a cool-core cluster, appears to be in the late stages of the post-merger blowout phase. This quasar is also identified as a gravitational recoil candidate, in which the supermassive black hole (SMBH) has received a recoil kick due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves during the coalescence of a progenitor SMBH binary. We analyze long-slit spectra of the extended, ionized gas surrounding E1821+643 to study its kinematics and ionization. We have identified three kinematically distinct components, which we associate, respectively, with a wide-angle polar wind from the nucleus, kinematically undisturbed gas, and a redshifted arc-like structure of gas, at a distance of 3-4\arcsec~(13-18 kpc) from the nucleus. The latter component coincides with the northern and eastern extremities of an arc of [OIII] emission seen in HST images. This feature could trace a tidal tail originating from a merger with a gas-rich galaxy to the South-East of the nucleus, whose presence has been inferred by Aravena et al. from the detection of CO emission. Alternatively, the arc could be the remnant of a shell of gas swept-up by a powerful quasar wind. The emission line ratios of the extended gas are consistent with photoionization by the quasar, but a contribution from radiative shocks cannot be excluded.