Dark Matter Constraints from the Eccentric Supermassive Black Hole Binary OJ 287

Abstract

OJ 287 is a blazar thought to be a binary system containing a ~ 18 billion solar mass primary black hole accompanied by a ~ 150 million solar mass secondary black hole in an eccentric orbit, which triggers electromagnetic flares twice in every ~ 12 year orbital period when it traverses the accretion disk of the primary. The times of these emissions are consistent with the predictions of general relativity calculated to the 4.5th post-Newtonian order. The orbit of the secondary black hole samples the gravitational field at distances between O(10) and O(50) Schwarzschild radii around the primary, and hence is sensitive to the possible presence of a dark matter spike around it. We find that the agreement of general-relativistic calculations with the measured timings of flares from OJ 287 constrains the mass of such a spike to < 3% of the primary mass.

Matches version accepted for publication

References in corpus (4)

• First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way
• A massive binary black-hole system in OJ287 and a test of general relativity
• Detecting dark matter around black holes with gravitational waves: Effects of dark-matter dynamics on the gravitational waveform
• Spitzer Observations of the Predicted Eddington Flare from Blazar OJ 287

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Dynamical friction from self-interacting dark matter
• Hints of Dark Matter Spikes in Low-mass X-ray Binaries: a critical assessment
• Accretion of self-interacting dark matter onto supermassive black holes