Bulgeless Galaxies

Bulgeless galaxies can provide important clues to our understanding of black hole and galaxy co-evolution. Unlike elliptical and cored-spirals galaxies, bulgeless galaxies have not experienced a major-merger event in their past. As a result, the central supermassive black hole has not experienced accelerated growth, and can thus provide clues into the black hole seed population.

In Bohn et al. (2020), we report the discovery of a supermassive black hole in a bulgeless galaxy. Through the measurement of a hidden, broad Paα emission line, we were able to estimate the mass of the black hole to be over six million solar masses. If a merger event indeed did not happen, then some secular process has to have grown the black hole to supermassive size.