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Published January 1, 2016 | Version v1
Journal article Open

PRIMARY BLACK HOLE SPIN IN OJ 287 AS DETERMINED BY THE GENERAL RELATIVITY CENTENARY FLARE

Creators

  • 1. Tata Inst Fundamental Res, Dept Astron & Astrophys, Bombay 400005, Maharashtra, India
  • 2. Osaka Kyoiku Univ, Astron Inst, 4-698 Asahigaoka, Osaka 5828582, Japan
  • 3. European Space Agcy, Herschel Sci Ctr, ESAC, Madrid 28691, Spain
  • 4. Univ Athens, Dept Astrophys Astron & Mech, GR-15784 Athens, Greece
  • 5. Univ Turku, Finnish Ctr Astron ESO, Turku, Finland
  • 6. Univ Turku, Dept Phys & Astron, Tuorla Observ, Turku, Finland
  • 7. Liverpool John Moores Univ, Astrophys Res Inst, IC2, Liverpool Sci Pk, Brownlow Hill L3 5RF, NSW, Australia
  • 8. Phys Res Lab, Ahmadabad 380009, Gujarat, India
  • 9. 5 Silver Lane, Wantage OX12 9TX, Oxon, England
  • 10. C Riera 1,1 3a, Barcelona, Spain
  • 11. Carretera Martos 28 Primero Fuensanta, Jaen, Spain
  • 12. Appalachian State Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Dark Sky Observ, Boone, NC 28608 USA
  • 13. Inst Nacl Astrofis Opt & Electr, Apartado Postal 51-216, Puebla 72000, Mexico

Description

OJ 287 is a quasi-periodic quasar with roughly 12 year optical cycles. It displays prominent outbursts that are predictable in a binary black hole model. The model predicted a major optical outburst in 2015 December. We found that the outburst did occur within the expected time range, peaking on 2015 December 5 at magnitude 12.9 in the optical R-band. Based on Swift/XRT satellite measurements and optical polarization data, we find that it included a major thermal component. Its timing provides an accurate estimate for the spin of the primary black hole, chi = 0.313 +/- 0.01. The present outburst also confirms the established general relativistic properties of the system such as the loss of orbital energy to gravitational radiation at the 2% accuracy level, and it opens up the possibility of testing the black hole no-hair theorem with 10% accuracy during the present decade.

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