Evidence for an Optical Low-frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillation in the Kepler Light Curve of an Active Galaxy

Autor: Smith, Krista Lynne, Mushotzky, Richard F., Boyd, Patricia T., Wagoner, Robert V.
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aac88c
Popis: We report evidence for a quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in the optical light curve of KIC 9650712, a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy in the original Kepler field. After the development and application of a pipeline for Kepler data specific to active galactic nuclei (AGN), one of our sample of 21 AGN selected by infrared photometry and X-ray flux demonstrates a peak in the power spectrum at log $\nu$ = -6.58 Hz, corresponding to a temporal period of t=44 days. We note that although the power spectrum is well-fit by a model consisting of a Lorentzian and a single power law, alternative continuum models cannot be ruled out. From optical spectroscopy, we measure the black hole mass of this AGN as log $M_{\mathrm{BH}} / M_\odot$ = 8.17. We find that this frequency lies along a correlation between low-frequency QPOs and black hole mass from stellar and intermediate mass black holes to AGN, similar to the known correlation in high-frequency QPOs.
Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for Publication in ApJ Letters
Databáze: arXiv