Presented By: Department of Mathematics
MCAIM Graduate Seminar Seminar
Time-Domain Signatures of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
Modern observational techniques and technologies are insufficient for identifying close-separation supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries, despite their paramount importance to the evolution of SMBHs and the galaxies which host them. Current methods focus on resolving spectral signatures such as distinct emission line regions or multiple HI absorption lines in jets, but these are still unable to probe the extremely close separations relevant to gravitational wave explorations. In this work, we focus on the potential for identification of sub-parsec SMBH binaries via periodic electromagnetic emission. We use a 2D hydrodynamics simulation of a close-separation (100 AU), low mass-ratio (m/M = 0.01) SMBH binary to explore the characteristic frequencies with which optical, UV, and X-ray emissions will vary in these sources. We find strong variability across the electromagnetic spectrum with periods corresponding to the binary orbital time. There is also a significant enhancement of the continuum X-ray emission over a single SMBH model due to shocks excited along the accretion streams of the secondary's accretion disk and where they strike the primary's accretion disk and the circumbinary disk. These features can enable the identification of SMBH binary candidates through both single-epoch observations and long-term time monitoring. Speaker(s): Kevin Whitley