English

Tracing the light: Identification for the optical counterpart candidates of binary black-holes during O3

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-07-04 v1

Abstract

The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are widely considered the ideal environments for binary black hole (BBH) mergers and the only plausible sites for their electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. Graham et al.(2023) identified seven AGN flares that are potentially associated with gravitational-wave (GW) events detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration during the third observing run. In this article, utilizing an additional three years of Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) public data after their discovery, we conduct an updated analysis and find that only three flares can be identified. By implementing a joint analysis of optical and GW data through a Bayesian framework, we find two flares exhibit a strong correlation with GW events, with no secondary flares observed in their host AGN up to 2024 October 31. Combining these two most robust associations, we derive a Hubble constant measurement of H0=72.123.1+23.9 km s1Mpc1H_{0}= 72.1^{+23.9}_{-23.1} \ \mathrm{km \ s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}} and incorporating the multi-messenger event GW170817 improves the precision to H0=73.56.9+9.8 km s1Mpc1H_{0}=73.5^{+9.8}_{-6.9} \ \mathrm{km \ s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}. Both results are consistent with existing measurements reported in the literature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.02475,
  title  = {Tracing the light: Identification for the optical counterpart candidates of binary black-holes during O3},
  author = {Lei He and Zhengyan Liu and Rui Niu and Bingzhou Gao and Mingshen Zhou and Purun Zou and Runduo Liang and Wen Zhao and Ning Jiang and Zhen-Yi Cai and Zi-Gao Dai and Ye-Fei Yuan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.02475},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ