Evidence for periodicity in 43 year-long monitoring of NGC 5548

TL;DR

This study analyzes 43 years of spectroscopic data from NGC 5548, revealing a ~5700-day periodicity in its light curves and spectral features, suggesting possible orbital motion or binary black hole presence.

Contribution

It introduces a new robust method for detecting periodicity in heterogeneous long-term spectral data, confirming a significant ~5700-day cycle in NGC 5548.

Findings

Detection of a ~5700-day periodicity in light curves and spectral lines.

Evidence supporting orbital motion within the broad emission line region.

Discussion of potential mechanisms like binary black holes or orbiting clouds.

Abstract

We present an analysis of 43 years (1972 to 2015) of spectroscopic observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. This includes 12 years of new unpublished observations (2003 to 2015). We compiled about 1600 H$\beta$ spectra and analyzed the long-term spectral variations of the 5100 \AA\ continuum and the H$\beta$ line. Our analysis is based on standard procedures including the Lomb-Scargle method, which is known to be rather limited to such heterogeneous data sets, and new method developed specifically for this project that is more robust and reveals a $\sim$5700 day periodicity in the continuum light curve, the H$\beta$ light curve and the radial velocity curve of the red wing of the H$\beta$ line. The data are consistent with orbital motion inside the broad emission line region of the source. We discuss several possible mechanisms that can explain this periodicity, including orbiting dusty and dust-free clouds, a binary black hole system, tidal disruption events, and the effect of an orbiting star periodically passing through an accretion disc.