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25 April 2024 |
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Spectroscopic Evidence for a Centi-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Galactic Center of NGC 5548 | | Yan-Rong Li
; Jian-Min Wang
; Luis C. Ho
; Kai-Xing Lu
; Jie Qiu
; Pu Du
; Chen Hu
; Ying-Ke Huang
; Zhi-Xiang Zhang
; Kai Wang
; Jin-Ming Bai
; | | Date: |
16 Feb 2016 | | Abstract: | As a natural consequence of cosmological hierarchical structure formation,
sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) should be common in
galaxies but thus far have eluded spectroscopic identification. Based on four
decades of optical spectroscopic monitoring, we report that a SMBHB resides in
the center of NGC 5548, a nearby Seyfert galaxy long suspected to have
experienced a major merger about one billion years ago. The optical continuum
and broad Hbeta emission line exhibit long-term variability with a period of
~14 years. Remarkably, the double-peaked profile of Hbeta shows systematic
velocity changes with a similar period. The complex, secular variations in the
line profiles are consistent with orbital motion of a binary with equal mass
and a semi-major axis of ~22 light-days (corresponding to ~18 milli-parsec). At
a distance of 75 Mpc, NGC 5548 is one of the nearest sub-parsec SMBHB
candidates that offers an ideal laboratory for gravitational wave detection. | | Source: | arXiv, 1602.5005 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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