Interactions among intermediate redshift galaxies

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 639
• Main Authors: Misquitta, Persis, Bowles, Micah, Eckart, Andreas, Yttergren, Madeleine, Busch, Gerold, Valencia-S, Monica, Fazeli, Nastaran
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg EDP Sciences 01.07.2020
• Subjects: Diagnostic systems; Emission analysis; Galactic rotation; Initial conditions; Interacting galaxies; Red shift; Seyfert galaxies; Space telescopes; Spectrum analysis; Star formation; Stars & galaxies; Supermassive black holes
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746
• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201937009

We present the properties of the central supermassive black holes and the host galaxies of the interacting object SDSS J134420.86+663717.8. We obtained optical long slit spectroscopy data from the Large Binocular Telescope using the Multi Object Double Spectrograph. Analysing the spectra revealed several strong broad and narrow emission lines of ionised gas in the nuclear region of one galaxy, whereas only narrow emission lines were visible for the second galaxy. The optical spectra were used to plot diagnostic diagrams, deduce rotation curves of the two galaxies, and calculate the masses of the central supermassive black holes. We find that the galaxy with broad emission line features has Seyfert 1 properties, while the galaxy with only narrow emission line features seems to be star-forming in nature. Furthermore, we find that the masses of the central supermassive black holes are almost equal at a few times 107 M⊙. Additionally, we present a simple N-body simulation to shed some light on the initial conditions of the progenitor galaxies. We find that for an almost orthogonal approach of the two interacting galaxies, the model resembles the optical image of the system.