Millihertz oscillations near the innermost orbit of a supermassive black hole

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Masterson, Megan; Kara, Erin; Panagiotou, Christos; Alston, William N.; Chakraborty, Joheen; Burdge, Kevin; Ricci, Claudio; Laha, Sibasish; Arcavi, Iair; Arcodia, Riccardo; Cenko, S. Bradley; Fabian, Andrew C.; Garcia, Javier A.; Giustini, Margherita; Ingram, Adam; Kosec, Peter; Loewenstein, Michael; Meyer, Eileen T.; Miniutti, Giovanni; Pinto, Ciro; Remillard, Ronald A.; Sadaula, Dev R.; Shuvo, Onic I.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Wang, Jingyi
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Hertfordshire; University Diego Portales; Peking University; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Baltimore County; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Tel Aviv University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University of Cambridge; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; California Institute of Technology; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC - Centro de Astrobiologia (INTA); Newcastle University - UK; Harvard University; Smithsonian Institution; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland Baltimore County; Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF)
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-2773
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08385-x
• 发表日期: 2025-02-13
• 关键词: quasi-periodic oscillations; lens-thirring precession; active galactic nuclei; x-ray variability; tidal disruption; xte j1550-564; mass-transfer; rxte observations; spin measurements; frequency

摘要

Recent discoveries from time-domain surveys are defying our expectations for how matter accretes onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The increased rate of short-timescale, repetitive events around SMBHs, including the recently discovered quasi-periodic eruptions1, 2, 3, 4-5, are garnering further interest in stellar-mass companions around SMBHs and the progenitors to millihertz-frequency gravitational-wave events. Here we report the discovery of a highly significant millihertz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in an actively accreting SMBH, 1ES 1927+654, which underwent a major optical, ultraviolet and X-ray outburst beginning in 20186,7. The QPO was detected in 2022 with a roughly 18-minute period, corresponding to coherent motion on a scale of less than 10 gravitational radii, much closer to the SMBH than typical quasi-periodic eruptions. The period decreased to 7.1 minutes over 2 years with a decelerating period evolution (P\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\ddot{P}$$\end{document} greater than zero). To our knowledge, this evolution has never been seen in SMBH QPOs or high-frequency QPOs in stellar-mass black holes. Models invoking orbital decay of a stellar-mass companion struggle to explain the period evolution without stable mass transfer to offset angular-momentum losses, and the lack of a direct analogue to stellar-mass black-hole QPOs means that many instability models cannot explain all of the observed properties of the QPO in 1ES 1927+654. Future X-ray monitoring will test these models, and if it is a stellar-mass orbiter, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) should detect its low-frequency gravitational-wave emission.