An increase in black hole activity in galaxies with kinematically misaligned gas

Abstract

External accretion events such as a galaxy merger or the accretion of gas from the immediate environment of a galaxy can create a large misalignment between the gas and the stellar kinematics. Numerical simulations have suggested that misaligned structures may promote the inflow of gas to the nucleus of the galaxy and the accretion of gas by the central supermassive black hole. We show for the first time that galaxies with a strong misalignment between the ionized gas and stellar kinematic angles have a higher observed fraction of active black holes than galaxies with aligned rotation of gas and stars. The increase in black hole activity suggests that the process of formation and/or the presence of misaligned structures are connected with the fuelling of active supermassive black holes.