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We study the optical flux and polarization variability of the binary black hole blazar OJ 287 using quasi-simultaneous observations from 2015 to 2023 carried out using telescopes in the USA, Japan, Russia, Crimea, and Bulgaria. This is one…
OJ 287 is a bright blazar with century-long observations, and one of the strongest candidates to host a supermassive black hole binary. Its polarisation behaviour between 2015 and 2017 (MJD 57300-58000) contains several interesting events…
A simple binary model for Mkn~501 is considered under the assumption that the TeV and X-ray periodicity of $\sim 23$ days, observed during the flaring state in 1997, may be basically interpreted as a doppler-shifted flux modulation due to…
Context. The blazar OJ 287 has been proposed as a binary black hole system based on its periodic optical outburst. Among blazars with parsec scale jets, the black hole binary systems are very rare and hence this source is very interesting…
We present a comprehensive analysis of all XMM-Newton spectra of OJ 287 spanning 15 years of X-ray spectroscopy of this bright blazar. We also report the latest results from our dedicated Swift UVOT and XRT monitoring of OJ 287 which…
The project MOMO (Multiwavelength Observations and Modelling of OJ 287) was set up to test predictions of binary supermassive black hole (SMBH) scenarios and to understand disk-jet physics of the blazar OJ 287. After a correction, the…
At about 70 solar masses, the recently-discovered dark object orbited by a B-type star in the system LB-1 is difficult to understand as the end point of standard stellar evolution, except as a binary black hole (BBH). LB-1 shows a strong,…
The BL Lacertae OJ 287 is a supermassive black holes binary (SMBHB) system with complex physics of its irregular flares. During 2016 October -- 2017 April period, a surprising outburst in the X-ray, UV and optical bands was detected, while…
A search for recoiling supermassive black hole candidates recently yielded the best candidate thus far, SDSS J092712.65+294344.0 reported by Komossa et al. Here we propose the alternative hypothesis that this object is a supermassive black…
SDSS J092712.65+294344.0 has been proposed as a candidate for a supermassive black hole (~10^8.8 solar masses) ejected at high speed from the host galactic nucleus by gravitational radiation recoil, or alternatively for a supermassive black…
Mass distribution of black holes identified through X-ray emission suggests a paucity of black holes in the mass range of 3 to 5 solar masses. Modified theories have been devised to explain this mass gap, and it is suggested that natal…
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…
OJ287 is a BL Lac object at redshift z=0.306 that has shown double-peaked bursts at regular intervals of ~12 yr during the last ~ 40 yr. Due to this behavior, it has been suggested that OJ287 might host a close supermassive binary black…
The quasar OJ~287 has shown large flares since 1888, following a pattern that arises in a supermassive black hole binary when the secondary hits the accretion disk of the primary, and releases a hot bubble of gas at every disk crossing. A…
Current cosmological constraints allow primordial black holes (PBHs) to constitute dark matter in the mass range of $10^{18}$-$10^{22}$g. We show that a major portion of this logarithmic window can be ruled-out based on the Solar System…
We study the basic properties of accretion flows onto binary supermassive black holes, including the cases in which a circumbinary disk is misaligned with the binary orbital plane, by means of three-dimensional Smoothed Particle…
I discuss the possibility that accreting supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries with sub-parsec separations produce periodically recurring luminous outbursts that interrupt periods of relative quiescence. This hypothesis is motivated by…
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…
We present X-ray intraday variability, cross-correlated variability, and power spectrum density analysis of the binary black hole blazar candidate OJ 287. The X-ray pointed observations of the source were carried out on eight occasions by…
Primordial black holes in the solar mass range are a possibly significant component of dark matter. We show how an argument relating the deflection of light by such black holes in the density spike likely to exist around the M87…