The nature of blue cores in spheroids: A possible connection with active galactic nuclei and star formation

We investigate the physical nature of blue cores in early-type galaxies through the first multiwavelength analysis of a serendipitously discovered field blue-nucleated spheroid in the background of the deep Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC griz multicolor observations of the cluster A1689. The resolved g-r, r-i, and i-z color maps reveal a prominent blue core identifying this galaxy as a "typical" case study, exhibiting variations of 0.5-1.0 mag in color between the center and the outer regions, opposite to the expectations of reddened metallicity-induced gradients in passively evolved elliptical galaxies. From a Magellan-Clay telescope spectrum we secure the galaxy redshift at z = 0.624. We find a strong X-ray source coincident with the spheroid galaxy. Spectral features and a high X-ray luminosity indicate the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the galaxy. However, a comparison of the X-ray luminosity to a sample derived from the Chandra Deep Field-South displays LX to be comparable to type 1/QSO galaxies while the optical flux is consistent with a normal star-forming galaxy. We conclude that the galaxy's nonthermal component dominates at high-energy wavelengths, while we associate the spheroid blue light with the stellar spectrum of normal star-forming galaxies. We argue for a probable association between the presence of blue cores in spheroids and AGN activity.