Catching supermassive black holes with Rubin-LSST: Towards novel insights and discoveries into AGN science

Session

Binary SMBH

22 Jul 2024, 15:00

Planetario di Torino “Attilio Ferrari” (Pino Torinese (Turin))

Conveners

Binary SMBH

• chair: Barbara Balmaverde

Binary SMBH

• chair: Barbara Balmaverde

35. Searching for supermassive black hole binaries in the era of LSST

Maria Charisi

22/07/2024, 15:00

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHB) form naturally in galaxy mergers. At sub-parsec separation, the most promising method to detect binaries is to find AGN with periodic variability and ~250 candidates have been identified in time-domain surveys over the last few years. However, confirming the nature of these candidates is very challenging due to the stochastic quasar variability. I will...

1. Reliable Identification of Binary Supermassive Black Holes with Rubin Observatory Time-Domain Monitoring

Megan C. Davis (University of Connecticut)

22/07/2024, 15:25

Periodic signatures in time-domain observations of quasars have been used to search for binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs). These searches, across existing time-domain surveys, have produced several hundred candidates. The general stochastic variability of quasars, however, can masquerade as a false-positive periodic signal, especially when monitoring cadence and duration are limited. In...

46. A candidate miliparsec super-massive black hole binary, discovered while disrupting a gas cloud

Jorge Cuadra (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez)

22/07/2024, 16:15

We report the discovery of a transient source in the ZTF public alert stream, whose location coincides with the nucleus of a $z<0.1$ Seyfert galaxy. After the initial alert, the source has increased its brightness by up to half a magnitude five times, roughly every hundred days. While the periodic behaviour suggests a super-massive black hole binary, archival data shows that before the alert...

21. Catching Close SMBH Binaries with Multi-Wavelength Follow-Ups of Repeating Transients in Galactic Nuclei: the Curious Case of ASASSN-20qc

Prof. Francesco Tombesi (Tor Vergata University of Rome & INAF)

22/07/2024, 16:35

Binaries containing a compact object orbiting a supermassive black hole are thought to be the precursors of gravitational wave events, but their electromagnetic identification has been extremely challenging. ASASSN-20qc is an optical astrophysical flare that originated from the nucleus of a seemingly quiescent galaxy at a redshift of 0.056. An extensive multi-wavelength follow-up campaign...

5. Determining the parameters of binary supermassive black holes

Alexandr Volvach (Radio Astronomy Laboratory)

22/07/2024, 16:55

A model is proposed for finding the parameters of close binary systems of supermassive black holes based only on observational data in the radio range. The methodology for determining the physical characteristics of the binary systems of supermassive black holes includes conducting harmonic and wavelet analyses, determining the masses of the satellites and their orbital characteristics. It is...