Supermassive Binaries and Extragalactic Jets

Abstract

Some quasars show Doppler shifted broad emission line peaks. I give new statistics of the occurrence of these peaks and show that, while the most spectacular cases are in quasars with strong radio jets inclined to the line of sight, they are also almost as common in radio-quiet quasars. Theories of the origin of the peaks are reviewed and it is argued that the displaced peaks are most likely produced by the supermassive binary model. The separations of the peaks in the 3C 390.3-type objects are consistent with orientation-dependent "unified models" of quasar activity. If the supermassive binary model is correct, all members of "the jet set" (astrophysical objects showing jets) could be binaries.

31 pages, PostScript, missing figure is in ApJ 464, L105 (see http://www.aas.org/ApJ/v464n2/5736/5736.html)

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Formation of Galactic Nuclei
• Completion of a Survey and Detailed Study of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Radio-Loud AGNs
• Inspiralling Supermassive Black Holes: A New Signpost for Galaxy Mergers
• Recoiling Black Holes in Quasars
• Rejection of the Binary Broad-Line Region Interpretation of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Three Active Galactic Nuclei
• Evidence for Binary Orbital Motion of a Quasar Broad-Line Region
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - III. Radial Velocity Variations
• Modeling of Emission Signatures of Massive Black Hole Binaries: I Methods
• A Large Systematic Search for Close Supermassive Binary and Rapidly Recoiling Black Holes - II. Continued Spectroscopic Monitoring and Optical Flux Variability
• Sub-parsec supermassive Binary Quasars: expectations at z<1
• Multi-messenger Time-domain Signatures Of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Close supermassive binary black holes
• The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Target Selection for Repeat Spectroscopy
• Kinematic signatures of reverberation mapping of close binaries of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei III. The case of elliptical orbits
• A fast test for the identification and confirmation of massive black hole binaries
• Balmer Line Variations in the Radio-Loud AGN PG 1512+370
• Off-Axis Energy Variability of AGNs: a New Paradigm for Broad-Line- and Continuum-Emitting Regions