Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 398, Issue 1, Pages L73-L77Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2009.00714.x
Keywords
black hole physics; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; galaxies: nuclei; quasars: individual: SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0
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Funding
- [SAO-G07-8138 C]
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In this Letter, we explore the hypothesis that the quasar SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0 is hosting a massive black hole binary embedded in a circumbinary disc. The lightest, secondary black hole is active, and gas orbiting around it is responsible for the blue-shifted broad emission lines with velocity off-set of 2650 km s(-1), relative to the galaxy rest frame. As the tidal interaction of the binary with the outer disc is expected to excavate a gap, the blue-shifted narrow emission lines are consistent with being emitted from the low-density inhomogeneous gas of the hollow region. From the observations, we infer a binary mass ratio q approximate to 0.3, a mass for the primary of M-1 approximate to 2 x 10(9) M-circle dot, and a semimajor axis of 0.34 pc, corresponding to an orbital period of 370 years. We use the results of cosmological merger trees to estimate the likelihood of observing SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0 as recoiling black hole or as a binary. We find that the binary hypothesis is preferred being 100 times more probable than the ejection hypothesis. If SDSSJ092712.65+294344.0 hosts a binary, it would be the one closest massive black hole binary system ever discovered.
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