Lomb-Scargle periodograms struggle with non-sinusoidal supermassive BH binary signatures in quasar lightcurves

Allison Lin, Maria Charisi, Zoltan Haiman

Supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) systems are expected to form as a consequence of galaxy mergers. At sub-parsec separations, SMBHBs can be identified as quasars with periodic…