The Astrophysical Journal, 809:117 (9pp), 2015 August 20 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/809/2/117 © 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. A PROBABLE MILLI-PARSEC SUPERMASSIVE BINARY BLACK HOLE IN THE NEAREST QUASAR MRK 231 Chang-Shuo Yan1, Youjun Lu1, Xinyu Dai2, and Qingjuan Yu3 1 National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China; [email protected] 2 Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Oklahoma, Norman OK, 73019, USA 3 Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China Received 2015 May 8; accepted 2015 July 16; published 2015 August 14 ABSTRACT Supermassive binary black holes (BBHs) are unavoidable products of galaxy mergers and are expected to exist in the cores of many quasars. Great effort has been made during the past several decades to search for BBHs among quasars; however, observational evidence for BBHs remains elusive and ambiguous, which is difficult to reconcile with theoretical expectations. In this paper, we show that the distinct optical-to-UV spectrum of Mrk 231 can be well interpreted as emission from accretion flows onto a BBH, with a semimajor axis of ∼590 AU and an orbital period of ∼1.2 years. The flat optical and UV continua are mainly emitted from a circumbinary disk and a mini- disk around the secondary black hole (BH), respectively; and the observed sharp drop off and flux deficit at λ ∼ 4000–2500 Å is due to a gap (or hole) opened by the secondary BH migrating within the circumbinary disk. If confirmed by future observations, this BBH will provide a unique laboratory to study the interplay between BBHs and accretion flows onto them. Our result also demonstrates a new method to find sub-parsec scale BBHs by searching for deficits in the optical-to-UV continuum among the spectra of quasars. Key words: accretion, accretion disks – black hole physics – galaxies: active – galaxies: individual (Mrk 231) – galaxies: nuclei – quasars: supermassive black holes 1. INTRODUCTION predictions, and the paper is the first attempt to apply this method to fit real observations. Supermassive binary black holes (BBHs) are natural In this paper, we report a BBH candidate in the core of products of the hierarchical mergers of galaxies in the Mrk 231, the nearest quasar with a redshift z = 0.0422, Λ CDM cosmology and are expected to be abundant (e.g., according to its unique optical-UV spectrum. In Section 2,we Begelman et al. 1980;Yu2002; Merritt and Milosavlje- summarize the multi-wavelength spectrum of Mrk 231 and its vić 2005), since many galaxies (if not all) are found to host a distinctive spectral features comparing with normal quasars. supermassive black hole (SMBH) at their centers (e.g., ) The spectrum of Mrk 231 at the optical band is similar to the Magorrian et al. 1998; Kormendy & Ho 2013 . Evidence has quasar composite spectrum; however, it drops dramatically at been accumulated for SMBH pairs in active galactic nuclei the wavelengths around 3000 Å and becomes flat again at (AGNs) and quasars with perturbed galaxy morphologies or 2500 Å. This anomalous continuum is hard to be explained other merger features (e.g., Komossa et al. 2003; Liu / ( ) ) by normal extinction absorption Veilleux et al. 2013 .We et al. 2010; Comerford et al. 2011; Fu et al. 2012 . These propose that the unique optical-to-UV spectrum of Mrk 231 can SMBH pairs will unavoidably evolve to closely bound BBHs be explained by emission from a BBH accretion system, with with separations less than 1 pc. However, the evidence for which the drop of the continuum at 4000Å is due to a gap or BBHs at the sub-parsec scale is still elusive (e.g., Popo- ć ) a hole opened by the secondary component of the BBH. vi 2012 , which raises a challenge to our understanding of the In Section 3, we introduce a simple (triple-)disk model for BBH merger process and the formation and evolution of the accretion onto a BBH system. Using this model, we fit SMBHs and galaxies. the optical-to-UV continuum of Mrk 231 (Section 4) and A number of BBH candidates in quasars have been proposed constrain the orbital configuration of the BBH system and the according to various spectral or other features, such as the ( associated physical parameters of the accretion process in double-peaked, asymmetric, or offset broad line emission e.g., Section 5. Discussions and conclusions are given in Sections 6 Boroson & Lauer 2009; Tsalmantza et al. 2011; Eracleous and 7. et al. 2012; Ju et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2014), the periodical variations (e.g., Valtonen et al. 2008; Graham et al. 2015), etc.; however, most of those candidates are still difficult to confirm. 2. MULTI-BAND OBSERVATIONS OF MRK 231 Thus, it is of great importance to find other ways to select and Mrk 231 is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy with a bright identify BBHs in quasars. Recently, Gültekin & Miller (2012) quasar-like nucleus. It is probably at the final stage of a merger proposed that the continuum emission from a BBH-disk of two galaxies as suggested by its disturbed morphology and accretion system, with unique observable signatures between the associated tidal features (Armus et al. 1994; Lipari et al. 2000 Å and 2 μm because of a gap or a hole in the inner part, 1994). The broadband spectrum of the Mrk 231 nucleus can be used to diagnose BBHs (see Sesana et al. 2012; Roedig exhibits some extreme and surprising properties as follows. et al. 2014; Yan et al. 2014, but Farris et al. 2015). This method First, the flux spectrum (Fl) drops dramatically by a factor of may be efficient in identifying BBHs since many AGNs and ∼10 at the near-UV band (from wavelength l ~ 4000 to quasars have multi-wavelength observations and broadband 2500 Å), while it is flat at λ ∼ 1000–2500 Å and at spectra. Those previous investigations only focus on theoretical λ ∼ 4000–10000 Å. If this sharp drop off is due to extinction, 1 The Astrophysical Journal, 809:117 (9pp), 2015 August 20 Yan et al. of the BBH–disk accretion, e.g., the wind features are consistent with the Fe absorption features of a typical FeLoBAL, and Mrk 231ʼs intrinsic X-ray weakness is also a natural consequence of a BBH–disk accretion system with a small mass ratio. 3. OPTICAL-TO-UV CONTINUUM FROM A BINARY BLACK HOLE—(TRIPLE-)DISK ACCRETION SYSTEM Considering a BBH system resulting from a gas rich merger, the BBH is probably surrounded by a circumbinary disk, and each of the two SMBHs is associated with a mini-disk (see Figure 1). In between the circumbinary disk and the inner mini- Figure 1. Schematic diagram for a BBH–disk accretion system. The BBH is disks, a gap (or hole) is opened by the secondary SMBH, which assumed to be on circular orbits with a semimajor axis of aBBH, and the masses is probably the most distinct feature of a BBH–disk accretion of the primary and secondary components are M·,p and M·,s, respectively. The BBH is surrounded by a circumbinary disk, connecting with the mini-disk system, in analogy to a system in which a gap or hole is opened around each component of the BBH by streams. In between the circumbinary by a planet migrating in the planetary disk around a star (Lin disk and the inner mini-disks, a gap or hole is opened by the secondary SMBH et al. 1996; Quanz et al. 2013). This type of geometric (Artymowicz & Lubow 1996;D’Orazio et al. 2013; Farris et al. 2014). configurations for the BBH–disk accretion systems has been The width of the gap (or hole) is roughly determined by the Hill radius 13 13 revealed by many numerical simulations and analysis (Arty- RH [~aMMBBH()·· ,s30.69 ,p qaBBH], where q is the mass ratio, and the inner boundary of the circumbinary disk can be approximated as mowicz & Lubow 1996; Escala et al. 2005; Hayasaki et al. rin,c~++aqR BBH()1 H. The outer boundary of the mini-disk surrounding 2008; Cuadra et al. 2009;D’Orazio et al. 2013; Farris et al. (r ) ( f ) 4 the secondary SMBH out,s is assumed to be a fraction r,s of the mean Roche 2014; Roedig et al. 2014). The continuum emission from disk 23 23 12 radius, RRL()qaqq 0.49 BBH [ 0.6++ ln ( 1 q )](Eggleton 1983), fi accretion onto a BBH may be much more complicated than that i.e., rout,s = fRr,s RL ( q), considering that the mini-disk may not ll the whole Roche lobe (the red dashed circle). For BBHs with mass ratios roughly in the from disk accretion onto a single SMBH, since the dynamical range from a few percent to 0.25, the accretion onto the secondary SMBH and interaction between the BBH and the accretion flow onto it consequently its emission dominates, compared with that from the mini-disk ( ( ) changes the disk structure Gültekin & Miller 2012; Sesana around the primary BH Roedig et al. 2012; Farris et al. 2014 . et al. 2012;Rafikov 2013; Roedig et al. 2014; Yan et al. 2014; Farris et al. 2015). Nevertheless, we adopt a simple model to – it requires a large dust reddening of Av ~ 7 mag at approximate the continuum emission from a BBH disk l ~-2500 4000 Å and a small dust reddening ∼0.5 mag at accretion system as the combination of the emissions from an <2500 Å (Veilleux et al. 2013).