Flyby Galaxy Encounters with Multiple Black Holes Produce Star-forming Linear Features

Abstract

We look for simulated star-forming linear features such as the one recently discovered by van Dokkum et al. in the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation ASTRID. Among the runaway black holes in ASTRID, none are able to produce clear star-forming wakes. Meanwhile, flyby encounters, typically involving a compact galaxy (with a central black hole) and a star-forming galaxy (with a duo of black holes), reproduce remarkably well many of the key properties (length and linearity, recent star formation, etc.) of the observed star-forming linear feature. We predict that the feature will persist for approximately 100 Myr in such a system and hence constitute a rare event. The feature contains a partly stripped galaxy (with M gal = 109–1010 M ⊙) and a dual black hole system (M BH = 105–107 M ⊙) in its brightest knot. The X-ray emission from AGN in the knot should be detectable in such systems. After 100–200 Myr from the first flyby, the galaxies merge, leaving behind a triple black hole system in a (still) actively star-forming early-type remnant of mass ∼5 × 1010 M ⊙. Follow-up JWST observations may be key for revealing the nature of these linear features by potentially detecting the older stellar populations constituting the bright knot. Confirmation of such detections may therefore help discriminate a flyby encounter from a massive black hole wake to reveal the origin of such features.