Optical quasi-periodic oscillation of the BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714 during the faint state

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of a 50-minute quasi-periodic oscillation in the blazar S5 0716+714 during a faint state, suggesting accretion disk variability and estimating the black hole mass.

Contribution

First confirmation of a 50-minute QPO in S5 0716+714 using multiple methods during a low flux state, linking it to accretion disk dynamics.

Findings

QPO detected with 99% significance

QPO period implies black hole mass between 3.2×10^7 and 5.03×10^6 solar masses

QPO likely caused by accretion disk variability

Abstract

In order to search for the evidence of quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in blazar, multicolor optical observations of the BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714 were performed from 2005 to 2012. For $I$ band on March 19 2010 with low variability amplitude and low flux level, the same quasi-periodic oscillation $\simeq50$ minutes with 99% significance levels is confirmed by ZDCF method, Lomb-Scargle method, REDFIT and fitting sinusoidal curves. The observed QPO is likely to be explained by accretion disk variability. If the observed QPO indicates an innermost stable orbital period from the accretion disk, the QPO $\simeq50$ min corresponds to a black hole mass of $5.03\times10^6 M_\odot$ for a non-rotating Schwarzschild black hole and $3.2\times10^7 M_\odot$ for a maximally rotating Kerr black hole.