Multimessenger Picture of J1048+7143

TL;DR

This paper presents a multimessenger analysis of the quasar J1048+7143, revealing jet precession, gamma-ray and radio flares, and proposing a supermassive black hole binary with a potential merger in 60-80 years, highlighting its significance for high-energy astrophysics.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive multimessenger approach combining gamma-ray and radio data to identify jet precession and a potential supermassive black hole binary in J1048+7143, a novel insight in quasar studies.

Findings

Detected three major gamma-ray flares with sub-flares.

Identified misaligned pc- and kpc-scale jets indicating jet precession.

Suggested a supermassive black hole binary may merge in 60-80 years.

Abstract

We draw the multimessenger picture of J1048+7143, a flat-spectrum radio quasar known to show quasi-periodic oscillations in the $\gamma$-ray regime. We generate the adaptively-binned Fermi Large Area Telescope light curve of this source above 168 MeV to find three major $\gamma$-ray flares of the source, such that all three flares consist of two-two sharp sub-flares. Based on radio interferometric imaging data taken with the Very Large Array, we find that the kpc-scale jet is directed towards west, while our analysis of $8.6$-GHz very long baseline interferometry data, mostly taken with the Very Long Baseline Array, revealed signatures of two pc-scale jets, one pointing towards east, one pointing towards south. We suggest that the misalignment of the kpc- and pc-scale jets is a revealing signature of jet precession. We also analyze the $5$-GHz total flux density curve of J1048+7143 taken with the Nanshan(Ur) and RATAN-600 single dish radio telescopes and find two complete radio flares, slightly lagging behind the $\gamma$-ray flares. We model the timing of $\gamma$-ray flares as signature of the spin-orbit precession in a supermassive black hole binary, and find that the binary could merge in the next $\sim 60-80$ years. We show that both the Pulsar Timing Arrays and the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna lack sensitivity and frequency coverage to detect the hypothetical supermassive black hole binary in J1048$+$7143. We argue that the identification of sources similar to J1048+7143 plays a key role to reveal periodic high-energy sources in the distant Universe.