A Case for a Binary Black Hole System Revealed via Quasi-Periodic Outflows
Abstract
Binaries containing a compact object orbiting a supermassive black hole are thought to be precursors of gravitational wave events, but their identification has been extremely challenging. Here, we report quasi-periodic variability in X-ray absorption which we interpret as quasi-periodic outflows (QPOuts) from a previously low-luminosity active galactic nucleus after an outburst, likely caused by a stellar tidal disruption. We rule out several models based on observed properties and instead show using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that QPOuts, separated by roughly 8.3 days, can be explained with an intermediate-mass black hole secondary on a mildly eccentric orbit at a mean distance of about 100 gravitational radii from the primary. Our work suggests that QPOuts could be a new way to identify intermediate/extreme-mass ratio binary candidates.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2402.10140,
title = {A Case for a Binary Black Hole System Revealed via Quasi-Periodic Outflows},
author = {Dheeraj R. Pasham and Francesco Tombesi and Petra Sukova and Michal Zajacek and Suvendu Rakshit and Eric Coughlin and Peter Kosec and Vladimir Karas and Megan Masterson and Andrew Mummery and Thomas W. -S. Holoien and Muryel Guolo and Jason Hinkle and Bart Ripperda and Vojtech Witzany and Ben Shappee and Erin Kara and Assaf Horesh and Sjoert van Velzen and Itai Sfaradi and David L. Kaplan and Noam Burger and Tara Murphy and Ronald Remillard and James F. Steiner and Thomas Wevers and Riccardo Arcodia and Johannes Buchner and Andrea Merloni and Adam Malyali and Andy Fabian and Michael Fausnaugh and Tansu Daylan and Diego Altamirano and Anna Payne and E. C. Ferrara},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.10140},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Science Advances. We report a new supermassive black hole phenomenon that we call quasi-periodic outflows (QPOuts)