Very Large Array imaging rules out precessing radio jets in three DES$-$SDSS-selected candidate periodic quasars

Abstract

Periodic quasars have been suggested as candidates for hosting binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs), although alternative scenarios remain possible to explain the optical light curve periodicity. To test the alternative hypothesis of precessing radio jet, we present deep 6 GHz radio imaging conducted with NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in its C configuration for the three candidate periodic quasars, DES J024703.24$-$010032.0, DES J024944.66$-$000036.8, and DES J025214.67$-$002813.7. Our targets were selected based on their optical variability using 20-yr long multi-color light curves from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The new VLA observations show that all three periodic quasars are radio-quiet with the radio loudness parameters measured to be $R\equiv f_{6\mathrm{cm}}/f_{2500}$ of $\lesssim$1.0$-$1.5 and the $k$-corrected luminosities $\nu L_{\nu }$[6 GHz] of $\lesssim$5$-$21 $\times$ 10${}^{39}$ erg s${}^{-1}$. They are in stark contrast to previously known periodic quasars proposed as binary SMBH candidates such as the blazar OJ 287 and PG1302$-$102. Our results rule out optical emission contributed from precessing radio jets as the origin of the optical periodicity in the three DES$-$SDSS-selected candidate periodic quasars. Future continued optical monitoring and complementary multi-wavelength observations are still needed to further test the binary SMBH hypothesis as well as other competing scenarios to explain the optical periodicity.

8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (90)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies
• LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The Galaxy Evolution Explorer: A Space Ultraviolet Survey Mission
• The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog
• First Results from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey
• Efficient Generation of Jets from Magnetically Arrested Accretion on a Rapidly Spinning Black Hole
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive
• Spectral Energy Distributions and Multiwavelength Selection of Type 1 Quasars
• The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview
• General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Magnetically Choked Accretion Flows around Black Holes
• The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Overview and Early Data
• The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory
• The Pan-STARRS1 Database and Data Products
• The 70 Month Swift-BAT All-Sky Hard X-Ray Survey
• Low frequency QPO spectra and Lense-Thirring precession
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Fourteenth Data Release
• Evolution of massive binary black holes
• A massive binary black-hole system in OJ287 and a test of general relativity
• Binary Black Hole Accretion From a Circumbinary Disk: Gas Dynamics Inside the Central Cavity
• A possible close supermassive black-hole binary in a quasar with optical periodicity
• Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars
• The 5th edition of the Roma-BZCAT. A short presentation
• SDSS Standard Star Catalog for Stripe 82: the Dawn of Industrial 1% Optical Photometry
• The Population of Viscosity- and Gravitational Wave-Driven Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Among Luminous AGN
• A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
• False periodicities in quasar time-domain surveys
• Comparing Single-Epoch Virial Black Hole Mass Estimators for Luminous Quasars
• A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
• The Radio-Loud Fraction of Quasars is a Strong Function of Redshift and Optical Luminosity
• The Dark Energy Survey Image Processing Pipeline
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Sample Characterization
• Relativistic boost as the cause of periodicity in a massive black-hole binary candidate
• The Local Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Landscape From Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• A Unified Catalog of Radio Objects Detected by NVSS, FIRST, WENSS, GB6, and SDSS
• The Difference Imaging Pipeline for the Transient Search in the Dark Energy Survey
• On the geometrical origin of periodicity in blazar-type sources
• Radio Loud and Radio Quiet Quasars
• Science with the TianQin observatory: Preliminary results on massive black hole binaries
• Very high redshift quasars and the rapid emergence of super-massive black holes
• Black hole mergers from dwarf to massive galaxies with the NewHorizon and Horizon-AGN simulations
• Spectroscopic Indication for a Centi-parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Galactic Center of NGC 5548
• Three Dimensional MHD Simulation of Circumbinary Accretion Disks -2. Net Accretion Rate
• A model for periodic blazars
• Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey
• Quasars That Have Transitioned from Radio-quiet to Radio-loud on Decadal Timescales Revealed by VLASS and FIRST
• A quasi-periodic oscillation in the blazar J1359+4011
• Massive BH Binaries as Periodically-Variable AGN
• Stochastic modeling of multiwavelength variability of the classical BL Lac object OJ 287 on timescales ranging from decades to hours
• Dynamics of warped accretion discs
• Can long-term periodic variability and jet helicity in 3C 120 be explained by jet precession?
• SDSS J0159+0105: A Radio-Quiet Quasar with a Centi-Parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate
• The seven year Swift-XRT point source catalog (1SWXRT)
• Structure and flux variability in the VLBI jet of BL Lacertae during the WEBT campaigns (1995--2004)
• Where are the X-ray QPOs in active galaxies?
• Did ASAS-SN Kill the Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate PG1302-102?
• Candidate Periodically Variable Quasars from the Dark Energy Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Jet precession driven by a supermassive black hole binary system in the BL Lac object PG 1553+113
• Testing the relativistic Doppler boost hypothesis for supermassive black hole binary candidates
• The kinematics in the pc-scale jets of AGN The case of S5 1803+784
• Ultra-Short-Period Massive Black Hole Binary Candidates in LSST as LISA "Verification Binaries"
• A Possible ~20 yr Periodicity in Long-term Optical Photometric and Spectral Variations of the Nearby Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nucleus Ark 120
• Is the Bardeen-Petterson effect responsible for the warping and precession in NGC 4258?
• Multi-messenger approaches to binary supermassive black holes in the "continuous-wave" regime
• A possible jet precession in the periodic quasar B0605-085
• Discovery of a Candidate Binary Supermassive Black Hole in a Periodic Quasar from Circumbinary Accretion Variability
• Unveiling sub-parsec supermassive black hole binary candidates in active galactic nuclei
• Toward the unambiguous identification of supermassive binary black holes through Bayesian inference
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• No tension between assembly models of supermassive black hole binaries and pulsar observations
• A Study of Quasar Selection in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova fields
• The minimum and maximum gravitational-wave background from supermassive binary black holes
• Multimessenger pulsar timing array constraints on supermassive black hole binaries traced by periodic light curves
• Is OJ 287 a Single Supermassive Black Hole?
• Black hole science with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
• Electromagnetic signatures of supermassive black hole binaries resolved by PTAs
• An Electromagnetic Signature of Galactic Black Hole Binaries That Enter Their Gravitational-Wave Induced Inspiral
• Testing the relativistic Doppler boost hypothesis for the binary candidate quasar PG1302-102 with multi-band Swift data
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Candidate Periodically-Variable Quasars: Testing the Binary Black Hole Hypothesis
• Broad-line region configuration of the supermassive binary black hole candidate PG1302-102 in the relativistic Doppler boosting scenario
• Radio Crickets: Chirping Jets from Black Hole Binaries Entering their Gravitational Wave Inspiral
• Pulsar Timing Array Constraints on the Merger Timescale of Subparsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
• Getting Ready for LISA: The Data, Support and Preparation Needed to Maximize US Participation in Space-Based Gravitational Wave Science

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Investigating the Accretion Nature of Binary Supermassive Black Hole Candidate SDSS J025214.67-002813.7