Black hole mass estimate in OJ 287 based on the bulk-motion comptonization model

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Hauptverfasser: Kuznetsov, Sergey, Titarchuk, Lev
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Kuznetsov, Sergey
Titarchuk, Lev
author_facet Kuznetsov, Sergey
Titarchuk, Lev
contents The multi-wavelength outburst activity in the BL Lacertae source OJ 287 has sparked a lot of controversy about whether the source contains one or two black holes (BHs) and what characteristics of this black hole binary would be. In this article we present the results of analysis of the X-ray flaring activity of OJ 287 using the data of Swift/XRT observations. We discovered that the energy spectra in all spectral states can be adequately fit with the XSPEC BMC model (the Comptonization one). As a result we found that the X-ray photon index of the BMC model, $Γ$ correlates with the mass accretion rate, $\dot M$. We found the photon index $Γ$ to increase monotonically with accretion rate $\dot M$ from $Γ\sim 2$ in the intermediate state (IS) to $Γ\sim2.5$ the high/soft state (HSS) with subsequent saturation at $Γ\sim$ 2.6 level at higher luminosities. This type of behavior of the spectral index is remarkably similar to the pattern observed in a number of established stellar-mass black hole candidates. Assuming the universality of the observed pattern of the correlation between the photon index and mass accretion rate, we estimate the BH mass in OJ 287 to be around $2\times10^8$ solar masses, using the well studied BH binaries GX 339-4 and XTE J1859-226 to calibrate the model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_17267
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Black hole mass estimate in OJ 287 based on the bulk-motion comptonization model
Kuznetsov, Sergey
Titarchuk, Lev
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
The multi-wavelength outburst activity in the BL Lacertae source OJ 287 has sparked a lot of controversy about whether the source contains one or two black holes (BHs) and what characteristics of this black hole binary would be. In this article we present the results of analysis of the X-ray flaring activity of OJ 287 using the data of Swift/XRT observations. We discovered that the energy spectra in all spectral states can be adequately fit with the XSPEC BMC model (the Comptonization one). As a result we found that the X-ray photon index of the BMC model, $Γ$ correlates with the mass accretion rate, $\dot M$. We found the photon index $Γ$ to increase monotonically with accretion rate $\dot M$ from $Γ\sim 2$ in the intermediate state (IS) to $Γ\sim2.5$ the high/soft state (HSS) with subsequent saturation at $Γ\sim$ 2.6 level at higher luminosities. This type of behavior of the spectral index is remarkably similar to the pattern observed in a number of established stellar-mass black hole candidates. Assuming the universality of the observed pattern of the correlation between the photon index and mass accretion rate, we estimate the BH mass in OJ 287 to be around $2\times10^8$ solar masses, using the well studied BH binaries GX 339-4 and XTE J1859-226 to calibrate the model.
title Black hole mass estimate in OJ 287 based on the bulk-motion comptonization model
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.17267