Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[4];
- Department of Astronomy and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- School of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Gravitational-Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingh am, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
- 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
- INAF-Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (LC), Italy
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Krell Institute, Ames, IA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF); Royal Society
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1470576
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1614429
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003864
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Journal Volume: 481 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1745-3925
- Publisher:
- Royal Astronomical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; astronomy & astrophysics; gravitational waves; BL Lacertae objects: general; galaxies: active; pulsars:general; quasars: supermassive black holes
Citation Formats
Holgado, A. Miguel, Sesana, Alberto, Sandrinelli, Angela, Covino, Stefano, Treves, Aldo, Liu, Xin, and Ricker, Paul. Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population. United Kingdom: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/sly158.
Holgado, A. Miguel, Sesana, Alberto, Sandrinelli, Angela, Covino, Stefano, Treves, Aldo, Liu, Xin, & Ricker, Paul. Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly158
Holgado, A. Miguel, Sesana, Alberto, Sandrinelli, Angela, Covino, Stefano, Treves, Aldo, Liu, Xin, and Ricker, Paul. Thu .
"Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly158.
@article{osti_1470576,
title = {Pulsar timing constraints on the Fermi massive black hole binary blazar population},
author = {Holgado, A. Miguel and Sesana, Alberto and Sandrinelli, Angela and Covino, Stefano and Treves, Aldo and Liu, Xin and Ricker, Paul},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1093/mnrasl/sly158},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters},
number = 1,
volume = 481,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Thu Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Thu Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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