Constraining the Orbit of Supermassive Black Hole Binary 0402+379

Abstract

The radio galaxy 0402+379 is believed to host a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB). The two compact core sources are separated by a projected distance of 7.3 pc, making it the most (spatially) compact resolved SMBHB known. We present new multi-frequency VLBI observations of 0402+379 at 5, 8, 15 and 22 GHz, and combine with previous observations spanning 12 years. A strong frequency dependent core shift is evident, which we use to infer magnetic fields near the jet base. After correcting for these shifts we detect significant relative motion of the two cores at $\beta =v/c=0.0054\pm 0.0003$ at $PA=-34.4^{\circ }$. With some assumptions about the orbit, we use this measurement to constrain the orbital period $P\approx 3\times 10^4$ y and SMBHB mass $M\approx 15\times 10^9{M}_{\odot }$. While additional observations are needed to confirm this motion and obtain a precise orbit, this is apparently the first black hole system resolved as a visual binary.

References in corpus (50)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations
• Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. I: Supermassive black hole binaries
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Massive black hole binary mergers within sub-pc scale gas discs
• Formation of gas disks in merging galaxies
• Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• The Role of Gas in the Merging of Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei. II. Black Hole Merging in a Clumpy Disk
• Long Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Massive Black Hole Binary Evolution
• Supermassive black hole binaries in gaseous and stellar circumnuclear discs: orbital dynamics and gas accretion
• The Role of Gas in the Merging of Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei. I. Black Hole Merging in a Spherical Gas Cloud
• Efficient Merger of Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Merging Galaxies
• Magnetic field strength and spectral distribution of six parsec-scale active galactic nuclei jets
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: I. Ejection of hypervelocity stars
• Eccentricity of supermassive black hole binaries coalescing from gas rich mergers
• A VLBA survey of the core shift effect in AGN jets I. Evidence for dominating synchrotron opacity
• Evolution of binary black holes in self gravitating discs: dissecting the torques
• Massive black hole binaries: dynamical evolution and observational signatures
• Pairing of Supermassive Black Holes in unequal-mass galaxy mergers
• A close-pair binary in a distant triple supermassive black-hole system
• A Radio Census of Binary Supermassive Black Holes
• Gas-Rich Mergers in LCDM: Disk Survivability and the Baryonic Assembly of Galaxies
• Growing Massive Black Hole Pairs in Minor Mergers of Disk Galaxies
• Kinetic Luminosity and Composition of Active Galactic Nuclei Jets
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: II. Loss-cone depletion and binary orbital decay
• Prospects for gravitational-wave detection and supermassive black hole astrophysics with pulsar timing arrays
• Dynamics of galaxy cores and supermassive black holes
• Long-Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries. III. Binary Evolution in Collisional Nuclei
• Evolution of Galactic Nuclei. I. orbital evolution of IMBH
• Core shifts, magnetic fields and magnetization of extragalactic jets
• Binary Black Hole Merger in Galactic Nuclei: Post-Newtonian Simulations
• Alignment of supermassive black hole binary orbits and spins
• Observational Signatures of Simulated Reconnection Events in the Solar Chromosphere and Transition Region
• The MeV spectral tail in Cyg X-1 and optically-thin emission of jets
• Breaking All the Rules: The Compact Symmetric Object 0402+379
• HI Observations of the Supermassive Binary Black Hole System in 0402+379
• Compact Symmetric Objects and Supermassive Binary Black Holes in the VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey
• A new mechanism for massive binary black hole evolution
• VLBI Polarimetry of 177 Sources from the Caltech-Jodrell Bank Flat-spectrum Survey
• Orbits Around Black Holes in Triaxial Nuclei
• Close supermassive binary black holes
• Astrophysics of Super-massive Black Hole Mergers
• A candidate supermassive binary black hole system in the brightest cluster galaxy of RBS 797
• Broad HI absorption in the candidate binary black-hole 4C37.11 (B2 0402+379)
• Searching for spectroscopic binaries within transition disk objects
• Proper Motion Measurements with the VLA: I. Wide-field Imaging and Pulse Gating Techniques
• Binary Black Holes, Gas Sloshing, and Cold Fronts in the X-ray Halo Hosting 4C+37.11
• A Multi-wavelength Study of the Host Environment of SMBHB 4C+37.11

Cited by in corpus (55)

• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
• The Astrophysics of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View
• Compact steep-spectrum and peaked-spectrum radio sources
• Electromagnetic Counterparts to Massive Black Hole Mergers
• Electromagnetic Emission from Supermassive Binary Black Holes Approaching Merger
• Interactions between multiple supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei: a solution to the final parsec problem
• Constraining Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. III. Candidates from Continued Radial Velocity Tests
• The Unanticipated Phenomenology of the Blazar PKS~2131$-$021: A Unique Super-Massive Black Hole Binary Candidate
• How frequent are close supermassive binary black holes in powerful jet sources?
• A hidden friend for the galactic center black hole, Sgr A*
• Varstrometry for Off-nucleus and Dual sub-Kpc AGN (VODKA): Methodology and Initial Results with Gaia DR2
• Candidate Periodically Variable Quasars from the Dark Energy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Pulsar Timing Constraints on the Fermi Massive Black-Hole Binary Blazar Population
• The Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna: Mission Studies and Science Case
• Toward the unambiguous identification of supermassive binary black holes through Bayesian inference
• Population Estimates for Electromagnetically-Distinguishable Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• VLBI studies of DAGN and SMBHB hosting galaxies
• Evaluating Black Hole Detectability with LISA
• Gravitational Waves from the Inspiral of Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic-scale Simulations
• An Improved Test of the Binary Black Hole Hypothesis for Quasars with Double-peaked Broad Balmer Lines
• A unified accretion disc model for supermassive black holes in galaxy formation simulations: method and implementation
• Gravitational Lenses as High-Resolution Telescopes
• Emission Signatures from Sub-parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes III: Comparison of Models with Observations
• Constraining a companion of the galactic center black hole, Sgr A*
• Considerations for the Observability of Kinematically Offset Binary AGN
• Likelihood for Detection of Sub-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Spectroscopic Surveys
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Candidate Periodically-Variable Quasars: Testing the Binary Black Hole Hypothesis
• The Search for Binary Supermassive Black Holes Amongst Quasars with Offset Broad Lines Using the Very Long Baseline Array
• Reliable Identification of Binary Supermassive Black Holes from Rubin Observatory Time-Domain Monitoring
• A Multi-wavelength Analysis of Binary-AGN Candidate PSO J334.2028+01.4075
• The MURALES survey. I. A dual AGN in the radio galaxy 3C459?
• Dynamics and spin alignment in massive, gravito-turbulent circumbinary discs around supermassive black hole binaries
• Dark Matter Signatures of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• VLBA 24 and 43 GHz observations of massive binary black hole candidate PKS 1155+251
• Constraining VLBI-optical offsets in high redshift galaxies using strong gravitational lensing
• Chandra Observations of Abell 2261 Brightest Cluster Galaxy, a Candidate Host to a Recoiling Black Hole
• Connecting traces of galaxy evolution: the missing core mass -- morphological fine structure relation
• Deep VLBI Observations Challenge Previous Evidence of a Binary Supermassive Black Hole Residing in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 7674
• Jet-powered Outflows in Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate SDSS J1048+0055
• J1110+4817 -- a compact symmetric object candidate revisited
• The Swarm Telescope Concept
• Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Toward Astrometric Constraints on a Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Early-Type Galaxy NGC\,4472
• Diffractive lensing of nano-Hertz gravitational waves emitted from supermassive binary black holes by intervening galaxies
• Damping of long wavelength gravitational waves by the intergalactic medium
• Velocity offset between emission and absorption lines might be an effective indicator of dual core system
• Jetted subgalactic-size radio sources in merging galaxies -- A jet redirection scenario
• Detection of the Fe K lines from the binary AGN in 4C+37.11
• A possible binary AGN in Mrk\,622?
• Omega Centauri: weak MgH-band in red giants directly trace the helium content
• Probing Boson Clouds with Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Evolution of Stellar Orbits Around Merging Massive Black-Hole Binary
• Milliarcsecond astrometric oscillations in active galactic nuclei as a precursor of multi-messenger gravitational wave events
• Merging of unequal mass binary black holes in non-axisymmetric galactic nuclei