The first kinematic determination of million-year precession period of AGNs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method to determine million-year precession periods of AGNs using their X-shaped morphologies, providing insights into their dynamics and potential binary black hole origins.

Contribution

It presents the first kinematic determination of long precession periods in AGNs based on 3D morphology analysis of X-shaped sources.

Findings

Precession periods for three X-shaped sources are approximately 6.1, 1.8, and 3.2 million years.

The morphology asymmetry is explained by precession and propagation time effects.

Results suggest a link between precession and binary super-massive black hole systems.

Abstract

Short precession periods like 164d of SS433 can be well determined by observations of time scales longer or much longer than the precession period. However, it doesn't work for sources with precession periods of millions of years. This paper utilizes the particular morphologies of X-shaped sources, so that the 3 dimension kinematics of lobes can be obtained. Thus, for the first time, the million-year precession period of X-shaped sources by observer on the Earth can be determined elegantly: $(6.1\pm 1.5)$Myr, $(1.8\pm 0.5)$Myr, and $(3.2\pm 1.2)$Myr for 3C52, 3C223.1 and 4C12.03 respectively. The result naturally explains the asymmetry displayed in the morphology of these sources, and the effect of propagation time on the diversity of morphologies is well demonstrated. The precession period may originate from long-term effects of a binary super-massive black hole system, which is a potential source of gravitational wave radiation.