Proper motion in lensed radio jets at redshift 3: a possible dual super-massive black hole system in the early Universe

Abstract

In this paper, we exploit the gravitational lensing effect to detect proper motion in the highly magnified gravitationally lensed source MG B2016+112. We find positional shifts up to 6 mas in the lensed images by comparing two Very Long Baseline Interferometric (VLBI) radio observations at 1.7 GHz that are separated by 14.359 years, and provide an astrometric accuracy of the order of tens of $\mu$as. From lens modelling, we exclude a shift in the lensing galaxy as the cause of the positional change of the lensed images, and we assign it to the background source. The source consists of four sub-components separated by $\sim 175$ pc, with proper motion of the order of tens $\mu$as yr${}^{-1}$ for the two components at highest magnification ($\mu \sim 350$) and of the order of a few mas yr${}^{-1}$ for the two components at lower magnification ($\mu \sim 2$). We propose single AGN and dual AGN scenarios to explain the source plane. Although, the latter interpretation is supported by the archival multi-wavelength properties of the object. In this case, MG B2016+112 would represent the highest redshift dual radio-loud AGN system discovered thus far, and would support the merger interpretation for such systems. Also, given the low probability ($\sim 10^{-5}$) of detecting a dual AGN system that is also gravitationally lensed, if confirmed, this would suggest that such dual AGN systems must be more abundant in the early Universe than currently thought.

arXiv comment11 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication by Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (51)

• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Assembly and Merging History of Supermassive Black Holes in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
• Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name?
• MERLIN observations of relativistic ejections from GRS 1915+105
• Super-Eddington Fluxes from Thin Accretion Disks?
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Rapid Formation of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Galaxy Mergers with Gas
• Bayesian Strong Gravitational-Lens Modeling on Adaptive Grids: Objective Detection of Mass Substructure in Galaxies
• The cosmic evolution of massive black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation
• The internal structure and formation of early-type galaxies: the gravitational--lens system MG2016+112 at z=1.004
• Understanding Dual AGN Activation in the Nearby Universe
• Disentangling Baryons and Dark Matter in the Spiral Gravitational Lens B1933+503
• Gravitational Waves from Supermassive Black Hole Coalescence in a Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Model
• A close-pair binary in a distant triple supermassive black-hole system
• A 1.75 kpc/h Separation Dual AGN at z=0.36 in the COSMOS Field
• Modelling the line-of-sight contribution in substructure lensing
• Is every strong lens model unhappy in its own way? Uniform modelling of a sample of 13 quadruply+ imaged quasars
• High resolution imaging of the anomalous flux-ratio gravitational lens system CLASS B2045+265: Dark or luminous satellites?
• Decomposition of the visible and dark matter in the Einstein ring 0047-2808 by semi-linear inversion
• The stellar velocity dispersion of the lens galaxy in MG2016+112 at z=1.004
• Anomalous Flux Ratios in Gravitational Lenses: For or Against CDM?
• Discovery of a Sub-Parsec Radio Counterjet in the Nucleus of Centaurus A
• Hubble Space Telescope Proper motion (HSTPROMO) Catalogs of Galactic Globular Clusters. VI. Improved data reduction and internal-kinematic analysis of NGC 362
• GMRT observations of X-shaped radio sources
• The role of luminous substructure in the gravitational lens system MG 2016+112
• 3D motions in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy as a glimpse of a new era
• Radio, optical and infrared observations of CLASS B0128+437
• Flux-ratio anomalies from discs and other baryonic structures in the Illustris simulation
• Astrometric Perturbations in Substructure Lensing
• SHARP - II. Mass structure in strong lenses is not necessarily dark matter substructure: A flux ratio anomaly from an edge-on disc
• Dissecting Galaxies: Separating Star Formation, Shock Excitation and AGN Activity in the Central Region of NGC 613
• The abundances and properties of Dual AGN and their host galaxies in the EAGLE simulations
• Deflection of light and particles by moving gravitational lenses
• SHARP - V. Modelling gravitationally-lensed radio arcs imaged with global VLBI observations
• 2016+112: A Gravitationally Lensed Type-II Quasar
• The Detection of Pure Dark Matter Objects with Bent Multiply Imaged Radio Jets
• On the density profile of dark matter substructure in gravitational lens galaxies
• Changes in the measured image separation of the gravitational lens system, PKS 1830-211
• Accretion and Orbital Inspiral in Gas-Assisted Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers
• Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Identifies an $r_p$ = 1 Kpc Dual Active Galactic Nucleus in the Minor Galaxy Merger SDSS J0924+0510 at z = 0.1495
• Two in one? A possible dual radio-emitting nucleus in the quasar SDSS J1425+3231
• VLBI studies of DAGN and SMBHB hosting galaxies
• A novel search for gravitationally lensed radio sources in wide-field VLBI imaging from the mJIVE-20 survey
• MUSE 3D Spectroscopy and Kinematics of the gigahertz peaked spectrum Radio Galaxy PKS 1934-63: Interaction, Recently Triggered AGN and Star Formation
• A search for the third lensed image in JVAS B1030+074
• The galaxy population of the z=1 cluster of galaxies MG2016+112
• Radio Monitoring Campaigns of Six Strongly Lensed Quasars
• Proper Motions Of VLBI Lenses, Inertial Frames and The Evolution of Peculiar Velocities
• Chandra Observations of the Gravitationally Lensed System 2016+112
• Characterisation of a candidate dual AGN

Cited by in corpus (12)

• A novel approach to visibility-space modelling of interferometric gravitational lens observations at high angular resolution
• GA-NIFS: High number of dual active galactic nuclei at z~3
• Systematic errors in strong gravitational lensing reconstructions, a numerical simulation perspective
• Radio Jet Proper-motion Analysis of Nine Distant Quasars above Redshift 3.5
• Constraining VLBI-optical offsets in high redshift galaxies using strong gravitational lensing
• Resolving Complex Inner X-ray Structure of the Gravitationaly Lensed AGN MGB2016+112
• Successful application of PSF-R techniques to the case of the globular cluster NGC6121 (M4)
• Milliarcsecond X-ray astrometry to resolve inner regions of AGN at $z>1$ using gravitational lensing
• Detection of millimeter-wave coronal emission in a quasar at cosmological distance using microlensing
• An extended and extremely thin gravitational arc from a lensed compact symmetric object at redshift 2.059
• Finding Lensed Radio Sources with the VLA Sky Survey
• Role of the companion lensing galaxy in the CLASS gravitational lens B1152+199