INVESTIGADORES
ROMERO Gustavo Esteban
artículos
Título:
TESTING THE BINARY BLACK HOLE PARADIGM THROUGH THE Fe Ka LINE PROFILE: APPLICATION TO 3C 273
Autor/es:
DIEGO F. TORRES; GUSTAVO E. ROMERO; XAVIER BARCONS; YOUJUN LU
Revista:
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Editorial:
Chicago University Press
Referencias:
Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2003 vol. 596 p. 31 - 34
ISSN:
0004-637X
Resumen:
We propose the study of long-term variations in the Fe Ka line profile as a discriminator for binary black hole  (BH) systems. The existence of a binary BH in the center of an active galaxy will produce a particular signature in the evolution of the line profile, as a result of disk precession. This signature is a periodic variation of the position of the blue edge of the profile, accompanied by periodic change of its intensity. We show that detection of the former is clearly within the observational capabilities of planned X-ray missions. Detecting a periodic variation of line profiles would provide the first direct evidence for precessing disks in active galactic nuclei, as opposed to the existing evidence supporting only the precession of jets. We apply these ideas to 3C 273.