Deep VLBI Observations Challenge Previous Evidence of a Binary Supermassive Black Hole Residing in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 7674

Abstract

Previous Ku-band (15 GHz) imaging with data obtained from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) had shown two compact, sub-pc components at the location of a presumed kpc-scale radio core in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7674. It was then presumed that these two unresolved and compact components were dual radio cores corresponding to two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) accreting surrounding gas and launching radio-bright relativistic jets. However, utilizing the original VLBA dataset used to claim the detection of a binary SMBH, in addition to later multi-epoch/multi-frequency datatsets obtained from both the VLBA and the European VLBI Network, we find no evidence to support the presence of a binary SMBH. We place stringent upper limits to the flux densities of any sub-pc-scale radio cores which are at least an order of magnitude lower than the original VLBI radio-core detections, directly challenging the original binary SMBH detection claim. With this in mind, we discuss the possible reasons for the non-detection of any VLBI radio cores in our imaging, the possibility of a binary SMBH still residing in NGC 7674, and the prospect of future observations shedding further light on the true nature of this active galactic nucleus.

arXiv commentAccepted by ApJ

References in corpus (72)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• 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
• A Unified Model for the Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars
• AGN Black Hole Masses and Bolometric Luminosities
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Search For An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• First Light for GRAVITY: Phase Referencing Optical Interferometry for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
• A multi-scale multi-frequency deconvolution algorithm for synthesis imaging in radio interferometry
• How Do Massive Black Holes Get Their Gas?
• The International Pulsar Timing Array: First Data Release
• The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
• Evolution of massive binary black holes
• Formation of Precessing Jets by Tilted Black-hole Discs in 3D General Relativistic MHD Simulations
• The non-coplanar baselines effect in radio interferometry: The W-Projection algorithm
• The Role of Gas in the Merging of Massive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei. II. Black Hole Merging in a Clumpy Disk
• A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey
• False periodicities in quasar time-domain surveys
• The Astrophysics of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves
• The Quest for Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes: A Multi-Messenger View
• A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates
• MOJAVE. XVII. Jet Kinematics and Parent Population Properties of Relativistically Beamed Radio-Loud Blazars
• A Large Systematic Search for Recoiling and Close Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• The Dynamic Evolution of Young Extragalactic Radio Sources
• The Nuclear and Circum-nuclear Stellar Population in Seyfert 2 Galaxies: Implications for the Starburst-AGN Connection
• A VLBA survey of the core shift effect in AGN jets I. Evidence for dominating synchrotron opacity
• Dynamics of triple black hole systems in hierarchically merging massive galaxies
• On the geometrical origin of periodicity in blazar-type sources
• A systematic search for massive black hole binaries in SDSS spectroscopic sample
• Pairing of Supermassive Black Holes in unequal-mass galaxy mergers
• The Micro-Arcsecond Scintillation-Induced Variability (MASIV) Survey II: The First Four Epochs
• Astrometric accuracy of phase-referenced observations with the VLBA and EVN
• A Radio Census of Binary Supermassive Black Holes
• SDSS J092712.65+294344.0: Recoiling Black Hole or A Sub-parsec Binary Candidate?
• Constraining sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars with Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy. I. The General Quasar Population
• Interaction of massive black hole binaries with their stellar environment: II. Loss-cone depletion and binary orbital decay
• Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey
• The Origin of X-shaped Radio Galaxies: Clues from the Z-symmetric Secondary Lobes
• Constraining the Orbit of Supermassive Black Hole Binary 0402+379
• Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Sample
• A candidate sub-parsec binary black hole in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7674
• A quasi-periodic oscillation in the blazar J1359+4011
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - III. Radial Velocity Variations
• How Big Can a Black Hole Grow?
• The duty cycle of radio galaxies revealed by LOFAR: remnant and restarted radio source populations in the Lockman Hole
• A Systematic Search for Periodically Varying Quasars in Pan-STARRS1: An Extended Baseline Test in Medium Deep Survey Field MD09
• The particle content of low-power radio galaxies in groups and clusters
• Structure and flux variability in the VLBI jet of BL Lacertae during the WEBT campaigns (1995--2004)
• Compact Symmetric Objects and Supermassive Binary Black Holes in the VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey
• The life cycle of radio galaxies in the LOFAR Lockman Hole field
• Multi-wavelength view of the close-by GRB 190829A sheds light on gamma-ray burst physics
• The weak neutral Fe fluorescence line and long-term X-ray evolution of the Compton-thick AGN in NGC 7674
• Sensitive VLBI Continuum and H I Absorption Observations of NGC 7674: First Scientific Observations with the Combined Array VLBA, VLA & Arecibo
• Evolution of Supermassive Black Hole Binary and Acceleration of Jet Precession in Galactic Nuclei
• The nearby luminous transient AT2018cow: a magnetar formed in a sub-relativistically expanding non-jetted explosion
• VLBI studies of DAGN and SMBHB hosting galaxies
• The radio structure of 3C 316, a galaxy with double-peaked narrow optical emission lines
• Parsec-scale jet properties of the quasar PG 1302$-$102
• Signature of Inverse Compton emission from blazars
• Considerations for the Observability of Kinematically Offset Binary AGN
• The BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey -- XVIII. Searching for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the X-rays
• Double-peaked Lines, Dual VLBI Components, and Precessing Jets in J1328+2751
• Ultramassive Black Hole Coalescence
• X-Ray Variability and the Inner Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The MASIV Survey IV: relationship between intra-day scintillation and intrinsic variability of radio AGNs
• Searching for Dual Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Search for Binary Supermassive Black Holes Amongst Quasars with Offset Broad Lines Using the Very Long Baseline Array
• The gas kinematics in Mrk 533 nucleus and circumnuclear region: a gaseous outflow
• Jet-powered Outflows in Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate SDSS J1048+0055
• OVI Asymmetry and an Accelerated Outflow in an Obscured Seyfert: FUSE and HST STIS Spectroscopy of Markarian533

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Chemical abundances in Seyfert galaxies X. Sulphur abundance estimates
• SPARCS-North Wide-field VLBI Survey: Exploring the resolved MicroJy extra-galactic radio source population with EVN+e-MERLIN
• Optical IFU Observations of GOALS Sample with KOOLS-IFU on Seimei Telescope: Initial results of 9 U/LIRGs at $z<$ 0.04
• Detection of the Fe K lines from the binary AGN in 4C+37.11
• Adaptive optics imaging of the nuclei of Seyfert 2 galaxies: An unexpectedly high incidence of nuclear stellar rings
• Fast, dust-poor outflows in the local candidate dual AGN MCG-03-34-64 observed with VLT/ERIS