Physics
Scientific paper
May 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997apj...481l...5v&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.481, p.L5
Physics
27
Relativity, Accretion, Accretion Disks, Black Hole Physics, Galaxies: Quasars: Individual Alphanumeric: Oj 287
Scientific paper
The quasar OJ 287 has a light curve extending over 100 years. It has been photographed accidentally since 1893. In recent years, systematic monitoring has been carried out, e.g., by the large monitoring campaign OJ-94, which was set up to check whether the quasar brightens above the usual brightness level in 1994 as it has done regularly at 12 yr intervals since at least 1910. The large outburst in 1994 came as expected. A detailed analysis of the light curve led to a binary black hole model that predicts all future outbursts with the expected accuracy of 1 week. The first prediction of the new model was a second outburst that should have begun in 1995 November and should have extended until 1996 January. The outburst came on time, which thus confirms the expectations of the binary black hole model. Because of the strong gravitational fields involved in the supermassive binary black hole model, the timing of future outbursts will provide a sensitive test to the general theory of relativity in very strong gravitational fields, exceeding by a factor ~104 the gravitational fields present in the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16.
Lehto Harry J.
Valtonen Mauri J.
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