Detection of periodic radio signal from the blazar J1043+2408. (arXiv:1811.12689v1 [astro-ph.HE])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bhatta_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Gopal Bhatta</a>
Search for periodic signals from blazars has become widely discussed topic in
recent years. In the scenario that such periodic changes originate from the
innermost regions of blazars, the signals bear imprints of the processes
occurring near the central engine, which is mostly inaccessible to our direct
view. Such signals provide insights into various aspect of blazar studies
including disk-jet connection, magnetic field configuration and, more
importantly, strong gravity near the supermassive black holes and release of
gravitational waves from the binary supermassive black hole systems. In this
work, we report detection of a periodic signal in the radio light curve of the
blazar J1043+2408 spanning $sim$10.5 years. We performed multiple methods of
time series analysis, namely, epoch folding, Lomb-Scargle periodogram, and
discrete auto-correlation function. All three methods consistently reveal a
repeating signal with a periodicity of $sim560$ days. To robustly account for
the red-noise processes usually dominant in the blazar variability and other
possible artifacts, a large number of Monte Carlo simulations were performed.
This allowed us to estimate a high significance (99.9% local and 99.4%
global) against possible spurious detection. As possible explanations, we
discuss a number of scenarios including binary supermassive black hole system,
Lense-Thirring precession and jet precession.
Search for periodic signals from blazars has become widely discussed topic in
recent years. In the scenario that such periodic changes originate from the
innermost regions of blazars, the signals bear imprints of the processes
occurring near the central engine, which is mostly inaccessible to our direct
view. Such signals provide insights into various aspect of blazar studies
including disk-jet connection, magnetic field configuration and, more
importantly, strong gravity near the supermassive black holes and release of
gravitational waves from the binary supermassive black hole systems. In this
work, we report detection of a periodic signal in the radio light curve of the
blazar J1043+2408 spanning $sim$10.5 years. We performed multiple methods of
time series analysis, namely, epoch folding, Lomb-Scargle periodogram, and
discrete auto-correlation function. All three methods consistently reveal a
repeating signal with a periodicity of $sim560$ days. To robustly account for
the red-noise processes usually dominant in the blazar variability and other
possible artifacts, a large number of Monte Carlo simulations were performed.
This allowed us to estimate a high significance (99.9% local and 99.4%
global) against possible spurious detection. As possible explanations, we
discuss a number of scenarios including binary supermassive black hole system,
Lense-Thirring precession and jet precession.
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