  Context: Hyper-velocity stars move so fast that only a supermassive black
hole (SMBH) seems to be capable to accelerate them. Hence the Galactic centre
(GC) is their only suggested place of origin. Edelmann et al. (2005) found the
early B-star HE0437-5439 to be too short-lived to have reached its current
position in the Galactic halo if ejected from the GC, except if being a blue
straggler. Its proximity to the LMC suggested an origin from this galaxy. Aims:
The chemical signatures of stars at the GC are significantly different from
those in the LMC. Hence, an accurate measurement of the abundance pattern of
HE0437-5439 will yield a new tight constraint on the place of birth of this
star. Methods: High-resolution spectra obtained with UVES on the VLT are
analysed using state-of-the-art non-LTE modelling techniques. Results: We
measured abundances of individual elements to very high accuracy in HE0437-5439
as well as in two reference stars, from the LMC and the solar neighbourhood.
The abundance pattern is not consistent at all with that observed in stars near
the GC, ruling our an origin from the GC. However, there is a high degree of
consistency with the LMC abundance pattern. Our abundance results cannot rule
out an origin in the outskirts of the Galactic disk. However, we find the life
time of HE0437-5439 to be more than 3 times shorter than the time of flight to
the edge of the disk, rendering a Galactic origin unlikely. Conclusions: Only
one SMBH is known to be present in Galaxy and none in the LMC. Hence the
exclusion of an GC origin challenges the SMBH paradigm. We conclude that there
must be other mechanism(s) to accelerate stars to hyper-velocity speed than the
SMBH. We draw attention to dynamical ejection from dense massive clusters, that
has recently been proposed by Gvaramadze et al. (2008).
