The Search for Binary Supermassive Black Holes Amongst Quasars with Offset Broad Lines Using the Very Long Baseline Array

TL;DR

This study uses VLBA radio imaging to search for binary supermassive black holes in quasars with offset broad lines, finding no double cores but setting limits on possible binary separations and discussing future multi-wavelength approaches.

Contribution

High-resolution VLBA imaging of 34 quasars with velocity-offset broad lines to search for binary SMBHs and test physical models, providing new constraints on binary separations.

Findings

Half of the targets detected with VLBA; no double radio cores resolved.

Limits on binary separations based on VLBA resolution.

Projected radio/optical separations of about 10 pc in some quasars.

Abstract

In several previous studies, quasars exhibiting broad emission lines with >1000 km/s velocity offsets with respect to the host galaxy rest frame have been discovered. One leading hypothesis for the origin of these velocity-offset broad lines is the dynamics of a binary supermassive black hole (SMBH). We present high-resolution radio imaging of 34 quasars showing these velocity-offset broad lines with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), aimed at finding evidence for the putative binary SMBHs (such as dual radio cores), and testing the competing physical models. We detect exactly half of the target sample from our VLBA imaging, after implementing a 5 detection limit. While we do not resolve double radio sources in any of the targets, we obtain limits on the instantaneous projected separations of a radio-emitting binary for all of the detected sources under the assumption that a binary still exists within our VLBA angular resolution limits. We also assess the likelihood that a radio-emitting companion SMBH exists outside of our angular resolution limits, but its radio luminosity is too weak to produce a detectable signal in the VLBA data. Additionally, we compare the precise sky positions afforded by these data to optical positions from both the SDSS and Gaia DR2 source catalogs. We find projected radio/optical separations on the order of 10 pc for three quasars. Finally, we explore how future multi-wavelength campaigns with optical, radio, and X-ray observatories can help discriminate further between the competing physical models.