A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System

By C. Rodriguez, G. Taylor, R. Zavala, A. Peck, L. K. Pollack, R. S. U. O. N. Mexico, U. S. Bolivar, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, U. S. N. Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Cfa and 3 more. 2006

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We report on the discovery of a supermassive binary black hole system in the radio galaxy 0402+379, with a projected separation between the two black holes of just 7.3 pc. This is the closest black hole pair yet found by more than 2 orders of magnitude. These results are based on recent multifrequency observations using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which reveal two compact, variable, flat-spectrum, active nuclei within the elliptical host galaxy of 0402+379. Multiepoch observations from the VLBA also provide constraints on the total mass and dynamics of the system. Low spectral resolution spectroscopy using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope indicates two velocity systems with a combined mass of the two black holes of ~1.5 × 108 M☉. The two nuclei appear stationary, while the jets emanating from the weaker of the two nuclei appear to move out and terminate in bright hot spots. The discovery of this system has implications for the number of close binary black holes that might be sources of gravitational radiation. Green Bank Telescope observations at 22 GHz to search for water masers in this interesting system are also presented.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0cff81f35084eb165012a689a5a3b300209431ce

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Citations in the corpus

A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (2015, background): “Rodriguez et al. (2006) report the discovery of two resolved compact, variable, flat-spectrum radio sources with a projected separation of 7.3 pc in the radio galaxy 0402+379 (z = 0.055).”
Massive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Dynamical Galactic Environments (2016, background): “Only one true MBH Binary (MBHB, i.e. gravitationally bound) system has been confirmed: a resolved system in the radio galaxy 0402+379, at a separation of ∼ 7 pc by Rodriguez et al. (2006).”
Dynamics of triple black hole systems in hierarchically merging massive galaxies (2006, methodology): “Rodriguez et al. (2006) have detected what is thought to be an SMBH binary at a projected separation of just 7.3 pc in the radio galaxy 0402+379, through multi-frequency radio observations using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).”
Alignment of the Spins of Supermassive Black Holes Prior to Coalescence (2007, background): “Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) imaging of this radio galaxy by Maness et al. (2004) discovered two compact flat spectrum radio cores, and follow-up VLBA observations presented by Rodriguez et al. (2006) showed the cores to be stationary.”
Black-hole binaries, gravitational waves, and numerical relativity (2010, background): “However, due to the vast cosmic distances involved, and the small angular separations on the sky expected for MBH binaries, only a few candidates are currently known through electromagnetic observations (Komossa, 2003; Komossa et al., 2003; Rodriguez et al., 2006).”
Massive black hole binary mergers within subparsec scale gas discs (2008, background): “Detecting black hole binaries on pc or sub-pc scales (where the black holes’ gravity dominates the galactic potential) is extremely difficult, with the closest confirmed binary in the radio galaxy 0402+379 (Rodriguez et al., 2006) having a projected separation of 7.3 pc.”
THE POPULATION OF VISCOSITY- AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVE-DRIVEN SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE BINARIES AMONG LUMINOUS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2009, background): “A radio galaxy is also known to have a double core with a projected separation of ∼10 pc (Rodriguez et al. 2006), and several other observations of radio galaxies, such as the wiggled shape of jets indicating precession (e.g., Roos et al. 1993), the X-shaped morphologies of radio lobes (e.g.,…”
A LARGE SYSTEMATIC SEARCH FOR CLOSE SUPERMASSIVE BINARY AND RAPIDLY RECOILING BLACK HOLES (2011, unknown): “Observational Searches for Close Binary and Recoiling Holes in Historical Perspective Until recently, direct imaging had resolved very few (presumably unbound) wide BH pairs, such as NGC6240 (Komossa et al. 2003), and a close pair, CSO 0402+379 (Maness et al. 2004; Rodriguez et al. 2006, 2009).”
A Population of Short-Period Variable Quasars from PTF as Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidates (2016, background): “Rodriguez et al. (2006), for instance, identified a pair of active SMBHs separated by 7.3 pc (the smallest separation that has been resolved) in the radio galaxy B3 0402+379.”
An Eccentric Circumbinary Accretion Disk and the Detection of Binary Massive Black Holes (2006, background): “Massive binary black holes have only tentatively been identified in astronomical observations (Komossa 2003, 2006; Rodriguez et al. 2006 report evidence for a binary with projected separation of 7.3 pc), but the theoretical case for their existence is very strong.”
Doing Science with eLISA: Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Millihertz Regime (2012, background): “re rare objects (Volonteri et al., 2009). Two cases deserve attention. The ﬁrst case is 0402+379, a radio source in an elliptical galaxy showing two compact ﬂat-spectrum radio nuclei, only 7pc apart (Rodriguez et al., 2006, 2009). The second case is OJ 287, a source displaying a periodic variability”