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Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. Department of Astronomy and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
  2. School of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Gravitational-Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingh am, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
  3. Universitá dell’Insubria, Dipartimento di Scienza ed Alta Technologia, Via Valleggio 11, I-22100, Como, Italy, INAF-Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (LC), Italy
  4. INAF-Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (LC), Italy
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Blazars are a subpopulation of quasars whose jets are nearly aligned with the line of sight, which tend to exhibit multiwavelength variability on a variety of time-scales. Quasi-periodic variability on year-like time-scales has been detected in a number of bright sources, and has been connected to the orbital motion of a putative massive black hole binary. If this were indeed the case, those blazar binaries would contribute to the nanohertz gravitational-wave stochastic background. In this work we test the binary hypothesis for the blazar population observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, which consists of BL Lacertae objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars. Using mock populations informed by the luminosity functions for BL Lacertae objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars with redshifts z ≤ 2, we calculate the expected gravitational-wave background and compare it to recent pulsar timing array upper limits. The two are consistent only if a fraction ≲10-3 of blazars hosts a binary with orbital periods <5 yr. We therefore conclude that binarity cannot significantly explain year-like quasi-periodicity in blazars.
Research Organization:
Krell Inst., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); Royal Society; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0003864
OSTI ID:
1470576
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1614429
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 481; ISSN 1745-3925
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BL Lacertae objects: general
astronomy &amp; astrophysics
galaxies: active
gravitational waves
pulsars:general
quasars: supermassive black holes