A comprehensive study of 2019-2020 flare of OJ 287 using AstroSat, Swift, and NuSTAR

TL;DR

This study analyzes the 2019-2020 X-ray and optical flares of the binary black hole system OJ 287 using multi-instrument data, revealing spectral state changes, a new high-energy component, and complex emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides a detailed spectral analysis of OJ 287's flares, models the synchrotron peak with GAMERA, and links magnetic field variations to accretion processes, offering new insights into jet and disk interactions.

Findings

Spectral states divided into low, intermediate, and high states.

High flux states show steep spectra with power-law index >2.

Evidence of a new high BL Lacertae component during flares.

Abstract

OJ 287 is a well-studied binary black hole system, that occasionally exhibits bright X-ray and optical flares. Here we present a detailed spectral study of its second brightest X-ray flare observed during 2019-2020 using archival Swift and NuSTAR observations along with ToO observations from AstroSat. The entire flaring period is divided into three states, defined as low, intermediate, and high states. The variation of hardness ratio (HR) with 0.3-10.0 keV integrated flux suggests a \enquote{softer-when-brighter} behavior, as also previously reported based on flux-index variations. Simultaneous high state X-ray spectra obtained using Swift, NuSTAR and AstroSat are very steep with a power-law index $>$2. A significant spectral change is observed in AstroSat-SXT and LAXPC spectrum which is consistent with Swift-XRT and NuSTAR spectrum. Together, optical-UV and X-ray spectrum during the high flux state, suggesting the emergence of a new high BL Lacertae (HBL) component. We have modeled the synchrotron peak with publicly available code named GAMERA for low, intermediate, and high flux state. Our modeling suggests the need of high magnetic field to explain the high state under the leptonic scenarios. Increase in the magnetic field value inside the jet could be linked to the increase in accretion rate as expected in the BH-disk impact scenario. The color-magnitude diagram reveals a \enquote{bluer-when-brighter} spectral energy distribution chromatism during the flaring period. Different chromatism or no chromatism at various occasions suggests a complex origin of optical emission, which is believed to be produced by disc impact or through synchrotron emission in the jet.