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Related papers: Is OJ 287 a Single Supermassive Black Hole?

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Supermassive black holes are common in centers of galaxies. Among the active galaxies, quasars are the most extreme, and their black hole masses range as high as to $6\cdot 10^{10} M_\odot$. Binary black holes are of special interest but so…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-08-20 M. J. Valtonen , S. Mikkola , D. Merritt , A. Gopakumar , H. J. Lehto , T. Hyvönen , H. Rampadarath , R. Saunders , M. Basta , R. Hudec

We present 27 geodetic VLBI maps of OJ 287 obtained from the archive of the Washington correlator. The observations presented here were made between 1990 October and 1996 December. During this period a sequence of six superluminal…

We present a multi-wavelength spectral and temporal analysis of the blazar OJ 287 during its recent activity between December 2015 -- May 2016, showing strong variability in the near-infrared (NIR) to X-ray energies with detection at…

The light curve of the quasar OJ 287 extends from 1891 up today without major gaps. Here we summarize the results of the 2005 - 2010 observing campaign. The main results are the following: (1) The 2005 October optical outburst came at the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-03-19 Mauri Valtonen , Stefano Ciprini

As a characteristic feature of generic blazars the polarization behavior of the quasi-periodic optical outbursts observed in OJ287 is investigated. The optical light-curves of the December/2015 outburst are also simulated in terms of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-05-13 S. J. Qian

Results from regular monitoring of relativistic compact binaries like PSR 1913+16 are consistent with the dominant (quadrupole) order emission of gravitational waves (GWs). We show that observations associated with the binary black hole…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-08-14 Lankeswar Dey , M. J. Valtonen , A. Gopakumar , S. Zola , R. Hudec , P. Pihajoki , S. Ciprini , A. V. Filippenko

The BL Lac PG 1553+113 has been continuously monitored in gamma rays with Fermi-LAT for over 9 years. Its updated light curve now includes 5 iterations of a main pattern comprising a high peak and a longer trough, with a period P \sim 2.2…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-02-21 Marco Tavani , Alfonso Cavaliere , Pere Munar-Adrover , Andrea Argan

In February 2017 the blazar OJ287, one of the best super-massive binary-black-hole-system candidates, was detected for the first time at very high energies (VHEs; E>100GeV) with the ground-based gamma-ray observatory VERITAS. Very high…

Blazars are a subclass of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), where the jet is aligned close to the line of sight. Blazars emission is dominated by non-thermal processes, where Doppler boosted radiation originates from a relativistic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-19 Jakub Juryšek , Vitalii Sliusar , Dimitri Moulin , Roland Walter

OJ 287 is the best-known supermassive black hole binary candidate in the nanohertz gravitational wave band. It exhibits periodic flares every $\sim$ 12 years, likely caused by collisions of a smaller-mass secondary with the accretion disk…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-24 Sean M. Ressler , Luciano Combi , Bart Ripperda , Xinyu Li

OJ 287 is a well-studied binary black hole system, that occasionally exhibits bright X-ray and optical flares. Here we present a detailed spectral study of its second brightest X-ray flare observed during 2019-2020 using archival Swift and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-09-22 Raj Prince , Gayathri Raman , Rukaiya Khatoon , Aditi Agarwal , Varun , Nayantara Gupta , Bożena Czerny , Pratik Majumdar

The BL Lacertae (BL Lac) object OJ 287 is one of the most dynamic blazars across the directly accessible observational windows: spectral, timing, polarization, and imaging. Apart from behaviors considered characteristics of blazars, it…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-07-01 Pankaj Kushwaha

We present analyses of Suzaku XIS light curves and spectra of the BL Lac object OJ 287 with observations positioned primarily around proposed recurrent optical outbursts. The first two observations were performed in 2007 April 10 - 13…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-08-06 Dongtao Zhou , Zhongli Zhang , Alok C. Gupta , Pankaj Kushwaha , Paul J. Wiita , Minfeng Gu , Haiguang Xu

OJ 287, a nearby blazar, has exhibited remarkable variability in its optical light curve since 1888, characterized by ~12-year quasi-periodic outbursts. These events are attributed to the orbital dynamics of a supermassive binary black hole…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-03-13 S. Boula , A. Nathanail

The bright blazar OJ 287 is the best-known candidate for hosting a nanohertz gravitational wave (GW) emitting supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) in the present observable universe. The binary black hole (BBH) central engine model,…

Supermassive binary black holes (SBBHs) are a natural outcome of galaxy mergers. Here we show that low-frequency ($f \leq 10^{-6}$ Hz) quasi-periodic variability observed from cosmic blazar sources can provide substantial inductive support…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 Frank M. Rieger

The light curves of optical outbursts observed in blazar OJ287 during 1983-2015 are analyzed and model-simulated to investigate the nature of its optical radiation. It is shown that the December/2015 outburst has its multi-wavelength…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-04-09 Shanjie Qian

We present second observations by K2 of OJ~287 and 7 other $\gamma$-ray AGNs obtained in 2017-2018, second and third observations of the lobe-dominated, steep spectrum quasar 3C~207, and observations of 9 additional blazars not previously…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-07-12 Ann E. Wehrle , Michael Carini , Paul J. Wiita , Joshua Pepper , B. Scott Gaudi , Richard W. Pogge , Keivan G. Stassun , Steven Villaneuva,

We present optical monitoring of the black hole candidate XTE J1752-223 during its 2009 - 2010 outburst and decay to quiescence. The optical light curve can be described by an exponential decay followed by a plateau, then a more rapid fade…

OJ287 is a quasi-periodic quasar with roughly 12 year optical cycles. It displays prominent outbursts which are predictable in a binary black hole model. The model predicted a major optical outburst in December 2015. We found that the…