Astrophysical modeling reveals periodic optical outbursts driven by a supermassive black hole binary in OJ 287, suggesting tidally induced accretion disk flows.
Key Points
To investigate whether the periodic optical variability observed in the blazar OJ 287 is caused by a binary pair of supermassive black holes.
Constructed an optical V-band light curve using historical and archival observations spanning from 1890 to the present.
Performed numerical simulations using Miller's N-body code to model tidally induced gas inflow from an accretion disk during companion periastron passages.
Detected recurring optical outbursts at ~11.65-year intervals (9-year rest-frame orbital period) and repeated minima at ~11.0-year intervals, consistent with simulated tidal inflow patterns.
Estimated black hole masses of 5 × 10⁹ M☉ and 2 × 10⁷ M☉ with an orbital semimajor axis of ~0.1 pc and a remaining gravitational-wave lifetime of ~10⁵ years.