Follow-up on the Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate J1048+7143: Successful Prediction of the Next Gamma-ray Flare and Refined Binary Parameters in the Framework of Jet Precession Model

Abstract

Analyzing single-dish and VLBI radio, as well as \textit{Fermi}-LAT $\gamma$-ray observations, we explained the three major flares in the $\gamma$-ray light curve of FSRQ J1048+7143 with the spin--orbit precession of the dominant mass black hole in a supermassive black hole binary system. Here, we report on the detection of a fourth $\gamma$-ray flare from J1048+7143, appearing in the time interval which was predicted in our previous work. Including this new flare, we constrained the mass ratio into a narrow range of $0.062<q<0.088$, and consequently we were able to further constrain the parameters of the hypothetical supermassive binary black hole at the heart of J1048+7143. We predict the occurrence of the fifth major $\gamma$-ray flare that would appear only if the jet will still lay close to our line sight. The fourth major $\gamma$-ray flare also shows the two-subflare structure, further strengthening our scenario in which the occurrence of the subflares is the signature of the precession of a spine--sheath jet structure that quasi-periodically interacts with a proton target, e.g. clouds in the broad-line region.

9 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Accepted to ApJL