Dheeraj R Pasham, Francesco Tombesi, Petra Suková, Michal Zajaček, Suvendu Rakshit, Eric Coughlin, Peter Kosec, Vladimír Karas, Megan Masterson, Andrew Mummery, Thomas W-S Holoien, Muryel Guolo, Jason Hinkle, Bart Ripperda, Vojtěch Witzany, Ben Shappee, Erin Kara, Assaf Horesh, Sjoert van Velzen, Itai Sfaradi, David Kaplan, Noam Burger, Tara Murphy, Ronald Remillard, James F Steiner, Thomas Wevers, Riccardo Arcodia, Johannes Buchner, Andrea Merloni, Adam Malyali, Andy Fabian, Michael Fausnaugh, Tansu Daylan, Diego Altamirano, Anna Payne, Elizabeth C Ferraraa
Binaries containing a compact object orbiting a supermassive black hole are thought to be precursors of gravitational wave events, but their identification has been extremely challenging. Here, we report quasi-periodic variability in x-ray absorption, which we interpret as quasi-periodic outflows (QPOuts) from a previously low-luminosity active galactic nucleus after an outburst, likely caused by a stellar tidal disruption. We rule out several models based on observed properties and instead show using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that QPOuts, separated by roughly 8...
March 29, 2024: Science Advances