DETECTION OF A POSSIBLE X-RAY QUASI-PERIODIC OSCILLATION IN THE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS 1H 0707–495

ABSTRACT The quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) detected in the X-ray radiation of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) is thought to originate from dynamical processes in close vicinity of black holes (BHs), and thus carries important physical information therein. Such a feature is extremely rare in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with supermassive BHs. Here we report on the detection of a possible X-ray QPO signal with a period of 3800 s at a confidence level >99.99% in the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) 1H 0707–495 in one data set in 0.2–10 keV taken with XMM-Newton . The statistical significance is higher than that of most previously reported QPOs in AGNs. The QPO is highly coherent (quality factor with a high rms fractional variability (∼15%). A comprehensive analysis of the optical spectra of this AGN is also performed, yielding a central BH mass of 5.2 × 10 6 M ⊙ from the broad emission lines based on the scaling relation. The QPO follows the known frequency-BH mass relation closely, which spans from stellar-mass to supermassive BHs. The absence of QPOs in other observations of the object suggests that it is a transient phenomenon. We suggest that the (high-frequency) QPOs tend to occur in highly accreting BH systems, from BHXBs to supermassive BHs. Future precise estimation of the BH mass may be used to infer the BH spin from the QPO frequency.

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