Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Sample

Abstract

Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries are expected in a Lambda CDM cosmology given that most (if not all) massive galaxies contain a massive black hole at their center. So far, however, direct evidence for such binaries has been elusive. We use cross-correlation to search for temporal velocity shifts in the MgII broad emission lines of 0.36 < z < 2 quasars with multiple observations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For ~ 10^9 Msun BHs in SMBH binaries, we are sensitive to velocity drifts for binary separations of ~ 0.1 pc with orbital periods of ~100 years. We find seven candidate sub-pc--scale binaries with velocity shifts > 3.4 sigma ~ 280 km/s, where sigma is our systematic error. Comparing the detectability of SMBH binaries with the number of candidates (N < 7), we can rule out that most 10^9 Msun BHs exist in ~ 0.03-0.2 pc scale binaries, in a scenario where binaries stall at sub-pc scales for a Hubble time. We further constrain that < one-third of quasars host SMBH binaries after considering gas-assisted sub-pc evolution of SMBH binaries, although this result is very sensitive to the assumed size of the broad line region. We estimate the detectability of SMBH binaries with ongoing or next-generation surveys (e.g., BOSS, Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph), taking into account the evolution of the sub-parsec binary in circumbinary gas disks. These future observations will provide longer time baselines for searches similar to ours and may in turn constrain the evolutionary scenarios of SMBH binaries.

arXiv commentResubmitted to ApJ after referee's comments. 21 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (105)

• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Quasar Sample
• The Assembly and Merging History of Supermassive Black Holes in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog V. Seventh Data Release
• Dynamics of line-driven disk winds in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Low-Luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Spectral Classification and Redshift Measurement for the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
• Discovery of a binary AGN in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 using Chandra
• The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements II. The Full Sample of Reverberation-Mapped AGNs
• Biases in Virial Black Hole Masses: An SDSS Perspective
• The dynamical evolution of massive black hole binaries - I. Hardening in a fixed stellar background
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Selfgravity and QSO disks
• A massive binary black-hole system in OJ287 and a test of general relativity
• Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs
• An Eccentric Circumbinary Accretion Disk and the Detection of Binary Massive Black Holes
• Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines
• The Population of Viscosity- and Gravitational Wave-Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Among Luminous AGN
• Tracing Black Hole Mergers Through Radio Lobe Morphology
• Radio galaxies with a `double-double' morphology: I - Analysis of the radio properties and evidence for interrupted activity in active galactic nuclei
• Massive Black Hole Binary Evolution
• The evolution of a supermassive binary caused by an accretion disc
• What controls the C IV line profile in active galactic nuclei?
• Completion of a Survey and Detailed Study of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Radio-Loud AGNs
• The Role of Gas in the Merging of Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei. I. Black Hole Merging in a Spherical Gas Cloud
• A recoiling supermassive black hole in the quasar SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0?
• A Large Systematic Search for Recoiling and Close Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• Mass Deficits, Stalling Radii, and the Merger Histories of Elliptical Galaxies
• Double-Peaked Low-Ionization Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Chaotic Loss Cones, Black Hole Fueling and the M-Sigma Relation
• A Candidate Sub-Parsec Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Limiting eccentricity of sub-parsec massive black hole binaries surrounded by self-gravitating gas discs
• Inspiralling Supermassive Black Holes: A New Signpost for Galaxy Mergers
• A Search for Binary Active Galactic Nuclei: Double-Peaked [OIII] AGN in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Eccentricity of supermassive black hole binaries coalescing from gas rich mergers
• What broad emission lines tell us about how active galactic nuclei work
• Satellites in Discs: Regulating the Accretion Luminosity
• Binary Black Hole Mergers from Planet-like Migrations
• Fast coalescence of massive black hole binaries from mergers of galactic nuclei: implications for low-frequency gravitational-wave astrophysics
• Type 2 AGNs with Double-Peaked [O III] Lines: Narrow Line Region Kinematics or Merging Supermassive Black Hole Pairs?
• Type 2 Active Galactic Nuclei with Double-Peaked [OIII] Lines. II. Single AGNs with Complex Narrow-Line Region Kinematics are More Common than Binary AGNs
• Active Galactic Nuclei with Double-peaked Narrow Lines: Are They Dual AGNs?
• Galaxy Cores as Relics of Black Hole Mergers
• Core depletion from coalescing supermassive black holes
• Binary Black Hole Accretion Flows in Merged Galactic Nuclei
• Correlations Between Supermassive Black Holes, Velocity Dispersions, and Mass Deficits in Elliptical Galaxies with Cores
• Arp 299: a second merging system with two active nuclei?
• Self consistent model for the evolution of eccentric massive black hole binaries in stellar environments: implications for gravitational wave observations
• Discovery of Four kpc-Scale Binary AGNs
• Properties of gravitoturbulent accretion disks
• A systematic search for massive black hole binaries in SDSS spectroscopic sample
• Broad Absorption Line Disappearance on Multi-Year Timescales in a Large Quasar Sample
• Pairing of Supermassive Black Holes in unequal-mass galaxy mergers
• Jet reorientation in AGN: two winged radio galaxies
• Identifying Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with Broad Emission Line Diagnosis
• A 1.75 kpc/h Separation Dual AGN at z=0.36 in the COSMOS Field
• The Merger Rate of Binary White Dwarfs in the Galactic Disk
• Rejection of the Binary Broad-Line Region Interpretation of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Three Active Galactic Nuclei
• The broad emission-line region: the confluence of the outer accretion disc with the inner edge of the dusty torus
• Locally Optimally-Emitting Clouds and the Variable Broad Emission Line Spectrum of NGC 5548
• SDSS J092712.65+294344.0: Recoiling Black Hole or A Sub-parsec Binary Candidate?
• eLISA: Astrophysics and cosmology in the millihertz regime
• Long-Term Profile Variability of Double Peaked Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Final Parsec Problem
• Evidence for Binary Orbital Motion of a Quasar Broad-Line Region
• Constraining sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. I. The General Quasar Population
• SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0: a candidate massive black hole binary
• Double-double radio galaxies: remnants of merger of supermassive binary black holes
• A Close Nuclear Black Hole Pair in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 3393
• Variability in Quasar Broad Absorption Line Outflows III. What Happens on the Shortest Time-scales?
• X-shaped radio galaxies as observational evidence for the interaction of supermassive binary black holes and accretion disk at pc scale
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: III. Scattering of bound stars
• Nuclear Cusps and Cores in Early-type Galaxies As Relics of Binary Black Hole Mergers
• A supermassive binary black hole with triple disks
• Long-Term Profile Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei with Double-Peaked Balmer Emission Lines
• Modeling of Emission Signatures of Massive Black Hole Binaries: I Methods
• Breaking All the Rules: The Compact Symmetric Object 0402+379
• Formation and Hardening of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Minor Mergers of Disk Galaxies
• LBQS 0103-2753: A 0.3 Arcsec Binary Quasar
• Intermediate resolution H-beta spectroscopy and photometric monitoring of 3C 390.3 I. Further evidence of a nuclear accretion disk
• Observable Consequences of Merger-Driven Gaps and Holes in Black Hole Accretion Disks
• Black hole mass and accretion rate of active galactic nuclei with double-peaked broad emission lines
• Structure and evolution of circumbinary disks around supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries
• A microlensing measurement of the size of the broad emission line region in the lensed QSO 2237+0305
• Orbits Around Black Holes in Triaxial Nuclei
• The nature of massive black hole binary candidates: I. Spectral properties and evolution
• Comment on the Black Hole Recoil Candidate Quasar SDSS J092712.65+294344.0
• Loss Cone Refilling Rates in Galactic Nuclei
• Close supermassive binary black holes
• SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0: NGC 1275 at z=0.7?
• Search of sub-parsec massive binary black holes through line diagnosis
• The Quasar SDSS J1536+0441: An Unusual Double-Peaked Emitter
• The peculiar optical spectrum of 4C+22.25: Imprint of a massive black hole binary?
• Evolution of Supermassive Black Hole Binary and Acceleration of Jet Precession in Galactic Nuclei
• Evolution of accretion disks around massive black holes: constraints from the demography of active galactic nuclei
• SDSS 0956+5128: A Broad-line Quasar with Extreme Velocity Offsets
• Discovery of Radio Emission from the Quasar SDSS J1536+0441, a Candidate Binary Black-Hole System
• Unusual Double-peaked Emission in the SDSS Quasar J093201.60+031858.7
• Probing the nature of the massive black hole binary candidate SDSS J1536+0441
• SDSS J092712.64+294344.0: recoiling black hole or merging galaxies?
• A photometric study of the field around the candidate recoiling/binary black hole SDSS J092712.65+294344.0

Cited by in corpus (74)

• The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
• A possible close supermassive black-hole binary in a quasar with optical periodicity
• A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
• The Astrophysics of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Spectroscopic Campaign and Emission-Line Light Curves
• Intermediate mass black holes in AGN disks II. Model predictions & observational constraints
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Velocity Shifts of Quasar Emission Lines
• NANOGrav Limits on Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Circular Orbits
• A milliparsec supermassive black hole binary candidate in the galaxy SDSS J120136.02+300305.5
• Electromagnetic Counterparts to Massive Black Hole Mergers
• The ultra-dense, interacting environment of a dual AGN at z $\sim$ 3.3 revealed by JWST/NIRSpec IFS
• Constraining sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. I. The General Quasar Population
• Accretion disks around binary black holes of unequal mass: GRMHD simulations of postdecoupling and merger
• Constraining Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. II. The Population with Kinematically Offset Broad Balmer Emission Lines
• Depleted cores, multi-component fits, and structural parameter relations for luminous early-type galaxies
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - III. Radial Velocity Variations
• Testing the binary hypothesis: pulsar timing constraints on supermassive black hole binary candidates
• Constraining Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. III. Candidates from Continued Radial Velocity Tests
• Offset Active Galactic Nuclei as Tracers of Galaxy Mergers and Supermassive Black Hole Growth
• A probable Milli-Parsec Supermassive Binary Black Hole in the Nearest Quasar Mrk 231
• SDSS J0159+0105: A Radio-Quiet Quasar with a Centi-Parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate
• Quasar outflows at $z\ge 6$: the impact on the host galaxies
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - II. Continued Spectroscopic Monitoring and Optical Flux Variability
• Multi-messenger Time-domain Signatures Of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Overmassive black holes in the $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-\sigma$ diagram do not belong to over (dry) merged galaxies
• Searching for Binary Supermassive Black Holes via Variable Broad Emission Line Shifts: Low Binary Fraction
• Boosted Tidal Disruption by Massive Black Hole Binaries During Galaxy Mergers FROM The View of N-Body Simulation
• The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna: Mission Studies and Science Case
• Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes I: Diagnostic Power of Broad Emission Lines
• Population Estimates for Electromagnetically-Distinguishable Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: The Search Continues
• Accretion and Orbital Inspiral in Gas-Assisted Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers
• Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes II: Effect of Accretion Disk Wind on Broad Emission Lines
• Multiwavelength variability study and search for periodicity of PKS 1510-089
• The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Target Selection for Repeat Spectroscopy
• Very Long Baseline Array Imaging of Type-2 Seyferts with Double-Peaked Narrow Emission Lines: Searches for Sub-kpc Dual AGNs and Jet-Powered Outflows
• Targeting supermassive black hole binaries and gravitational wave sources for the pulsar timing array
• Gravitational Lenses as High-Resolution Telescopes
• Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes III: Comparison of Models with Observations
• Considerations for the Observability of Kinematically Offset Binary AGN
• Likelihood for Detection of Sub-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Spectroscopic Surveys
• Measuring supermassive black hole peculiar motion using H${}_2$O megamasers
• Kinematic signatures of reverberation mapping of close binaries of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei III. The case of elliptical orbits
• A possible sub-kiloparsec dual AGN buried behind the galaxy curtain
• Variation of Broad Emission Lines from QSOs with Optical/UV Periodicity to Test the Interpretation of Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• The evolution of a binary in a retrograde circular orbit embedded in an accretion disk
• Testing the relativistic Doppler boost hypothesis for supermassive binary black holes candidates via broad emission line profiles
• Microlensing of Sub-parsec Massive Binary Black Holes in Lensed QSOs: Light Curves and Size-Wavelength Relation
• WISE J233237.05-505643.5: a Double-Peaked Broad-Lined AGN with Spiral-Shaped Radio Morphology
• The Search for Binary Supermassive Black Holes Amongst Quasars with Offset Broad Lines Using the Very Long Baseline Array
• Compact object mergers: Observations of supermassive binary black holes and stellar tidal disruption events
• Detecting subparsec super-massive binary black holes: Long termmonitoring perspective
• Broad-line region configuration of the supermassive binary black hole candidate PG1302-102 in the relativistic Doppler boosting scenario
• GA-NIFS: The highly overdense system BR1202-0725 at z $\sim$ 4.7. A double AGN with fast outflows plus eight companion galaxies
• ESPRESSO reveals a single but perturbed broad-line region in the supermassive black hole binary candidate PG 1302-102
• Pulsar Timing Array Constraints on the Merger Timescale of Subparsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
• Constraining VLBI-optical offsets in high redshift galaxies using strong gravitational lensing
• A Statistical Method to Search for Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei
• A fast test for the identification and confirmation of massive black hole binaries
• The nature of massive black hole binary candidates: II. Spectral energy distribution atlas
• Deep VLBI Observations Challenge Previous Evidence of a Binary Supermassive Black Hole Residing in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 7674
• Unusual Hard X-ray Flares Caught in NICER Monitoring of the Binary Supermassive Black Hole Candidate AT2019cuk/Tick Tock/SDSS J1430+2303
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Imprints of massive black-hole binaries on neighbouring decihertz gravitational-wave sources
• DULAG: A DUal and Lensed AGN candidate catalog with GMP method
• Detection of eccentric close-binary supermassive black holes with incomplete interferometric data
• On Variation of Light Curves and Broad Emission Lines for Periodic QSOs from co-rotating Supermassive binary black holes in elliptical orbits
• Balmer line shifts in quasars
• Time Evolution of Mg II in SDSS J2320+0024: Implications for a Subparsec Binary Supermassive Black Hole System
• XMM-Newton spectrum of the radio-loud quasar 3C 215: slim accretion disk or SMBH binary?
• Line Shapes Emitted from Spiral Structures around Symmetric Orbits of Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• Binary black hole signatures in polarized light curves
• A restless supermassive black hole in the galaxy J0437+2456