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At least 1,225 records · Page 68
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DOE OSTI2013

SUPERMASSIVE SEEDS FOR SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

Recent observations of quasars powered by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) out to z {approx}> 7 constrain both the initial seed masses and the growth of the most massive black holes (BHs) in the early universe. Here we elucidate the implications of the radiative feedback from early generations of stars and from BH accretion for popular models for the formation and growth of seed BHs. We show that by properly accounting for (1) the limited role of mergers in growing seed BHs as inferred from cosmological simulations of early star formation and radiative feedback, (2) the sub-Eddington accretion rates of BHs expected at the earliest times, and (3) the large radiative efficiencies {epsilon} of the most massive BHs inferred from observations of active galactic nuclei at high redshift ({epsilon} {approx}> 0.1), we are led to the conclusion that the initial BH seeds may have been as massive as {approx}> 10{sup 5} M{sub Sun }. This presents a strong challenge to the Population III seed model, which calls for seed masses of {approx}100 M{sub Sun} and, even with constant Eddington-limited accretion, requires {epsilon} {approx}< 0.09 to explain the highest-z SMBHs in today's standard {Lambda}CDM cosmological model. It is, however, consistent with the prediction of the direct collapse scenario of SMBH seed formation, in which a supermassive primordial star forms in a region of the universe with a high molecule-dissociating background radiation field, and collapses directly into a 10{sup 4}-10{sup 6} M{sub Sun} seed BH. These results corroborate recent cosmological simulations and observational campaigns which suggest that these massive BHs were the seeds of a large fraction of the SMBHs residing in the centers of galaxies today.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE X-RAY SPECTRAL EVOLUTION OF GALACTIC BLACK HOLE X-RAY BINARIES TOWARD QUIESCENCE

Most transient black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) spend the bulk of their time in a quiescent state, where they accrete matter from their companion star at highly sub-Eddington luminosities (we define quiescence here as a normalized Eddington ratio l{sub x} = L{sub 0.5-10{sub keV}}/L{sub Edd} < 10{sup -5}). Here, we present Chandra X-ray imaging spectroscopy for three BHXB systems (H 1743-322, MAXI J1659-152, and XTE J1752-223) as they fade into quiescence following an outburst. Multiple X-ray observations were taken within one month of each other, allowing us to track each individual system's X-ray spectral evolution during its decay. We compare these three systems to other BHXB systems. We confirm that quiescent BHXBs have softer X-ray spectra than low-hard-state BHXBs, and that quiescent BHXB spectral properties show no dependence on the binary system's orbital parameters. However, the observed anti-correlation between X-ray photon index ({Gamma}) and l{sub x} in the low-hard state does not continue once a BHXB enters quiescence. Instead, {Gamma} plateaus to an average ({Gamma}) = 2.08 {+-} 0.07 by the time l{sub x} reaches {approx}10{sup -5}. l{sub x} {approx} 10{sup -5} is thus an observationally motivated upper limit for the beginning of the quiescent spectral state. Our results are discussed in the context of different accretion flow models and across the black hole mass scale.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE BINARY EVOLUTION IN AXISYMMETRIC GALAXIES: THE FINAL PARSEC PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM

During a galaxy merger, the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in each galaxy is thought to sink to the center of the potential and form an SMBH binary; this binary can eject stars via three-body scattering, bringing the SMBHs ever closer. In a static spherical galaxy model, the binary stalls at a separation of about a parsec after ejecting all the stars in its loss cone-this is the well-known final parsec problem. Earlier work has shown that the centrophilic orbits in triaxial galaxy models are key in refilling the loss cone at a high enough rate to prevent the black holes from stalling. However, the evolution of binary SMBHs has never been explored in axisymmetric galaxies, so it is not clear if the final parsec problem persists in these systems. Here we use a suite of direct N-body simulations to follow SMBH binary evolution in galaxy models with a range of ellipticity. For the first time, we show that mere axisymmetry can solve the final parsec problem; we find the SMBH evolution is independent of N for an axis ratio of c/a = 0.8, and that the SMBH binary separation reaches the gravitational radiation regime for c/a = 0.75.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF GAMMA-RAY BLAZARS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CENTRAL BLACK-HOLE MASS

Radiation from the blazar class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exhibits fast time variability which is usually ascribed to instabilities in the emission region near the central supermassive black hole. The variability time scale is generally faster in higher energy region, and data recently provided by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in the GeV energy band enable a detailed study of the temporal behavior of AGN. Due to its wide field-of-view in the scanning mode, most sky regions are observed for several hours per day and daily light curves of many AGNs have been accumulated for more than 4 yr. In this paper we investigate the time variability of 15 well-detected AGNs by studying the normalized power spectrum density of their light curves in the GeV energy band. One source, 3C 454.3, shows a specific time scale of 6.8 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} s, and this value suggests, assuming the internal shock model, a mass for the central black hole of (10{sup 8}-10{sup 10}) M{sub Sun} which is consistent with other estimates. It also indicates the typical time interval of ejected blobs is (7-70) times the light crossing time of the Schwarzschild radius.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE DISCOVERY OF PERIODIC MODULATIONS IN THE OPTICAL SPECTRA OF GALAXIES, POSSIBLY DUE TO ULTRARAPID LIGHT BURSTS FROM THEIR MASSIVE CENTRAL BLACK HOLES

A Fourier transform analysis of 2.5 million spectra in the SDSS survey was carried out to detect periodic modulations contained in the intensity versus frequency spectrum. A statistically significant signal was found for 223 galaxies, while the spectra of 0.9 million galaxies were observed. A plot of the periods as a function of redshift clearly shows that the effect is real without any doubt, because the modulations are quantized at two base periods that increase with redshift in two very tight parallel linear relations. We suggest that this result could be caused by light bursts separated by times on the order of 10{sup -13} s, but other causes may be possible. We investigate the hypothesis that the modulation is generated by the Fourier transform of spectral lines, but conclude that this hypothesis is not valid. Although the light burst suggestion implies absurdly high temperatures, it is supported by the fact that the Crab pulsar also has extremely short unresolved pulses (<0.5 ns) that imply similarly high temperatures. Furthermore, the radio spectrum of the Crab pulsar also has spectral bands similar to those that have been detected. Finally, decreasing the signal-to-noise threshold of detection gives results consistent with beamed signals having a small beam divergence, as expected from non-thermal sources that send a jet, like those seen in pulsars. Considering that galaxy centers contain massive black holes, exotic black hole physics may be responsible for the spectral modulation. However, at this stage, this idea is only a hypothesis to be confirmed with further work.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

X-RAY NUCLEAR ACTIVITY IN S{sup 4}G BARRED GALAXIES: NO LINK BETWEEN BAR STRENGTH AND CO-OCCURRENT SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE FUELING

Stellar bars can lead to gas inflow toward the center of a galaxy and stimulate nuclear star formation. However, there is no compelling evidence on whether they also feed a central supermassive black hole: by measuring the fractions of barred active and inactive galaxies, previous studies have yielded conflicting results. In this paper, we aim to understand the lack of observational evidence for bar-driven active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity by studying a sample of 41 nearby (d < 35 Mpc) barred galaxies from the Spitzer Survey for Stellar Structure in Galaxies. We use Chandra observations to measure nuclear 2-10 keV X-ray luminosities and estimate Eddington ratios, together with Spitzer 3.6 μm imaging to quantify the strength of the stellar bar in two independent ways: (1) from its structure, as traced by its ellipticity and boxiness, and (2) from its gravitational torque Q{sub b} , taken as the maximum ratio of the tangential force to the mean background radial force. In this way, rather than discretizing the presence of both stellar bars and nuclear activity, we are able to account for the continuum of bar strengths and degrees of AGN activity. We find nuclear X-ray sources in 31 out of 41 galaxies with median X-ray luminosity and Eddington ratio of L{sub X} = 4.3 × 10{sup 38} erg s{sup –1} and L{sub bol}/L{sub Edd} = 6.9 × 10{sup –6}, respectively, consistent with low-luminosity AGN activity. Including upper limits for those galaxies without nuclear detections, we find no significant correlation between any of the bar strength indicators and the degree of nuclear activity, irrespective of galaxy luminosity, stellar mass, Hubble type, or bulge size. Strong bars do not favor brighter or more efficient nuclear activity, implying that at least for the low-luminosity regime, supermassive black hole fueling is not closely connected to large-scale features.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

SEARCH FOR SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE BINARIES IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY SPECTROSCOPIC SAMPLE

Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries are expected in a ΛCDM cosmology given that most (if not all) massive galaxies contain a massive black hole (BH) at their center. So far, however, direct evidence for such binaries has been elusive. We use cross-correlation to search for temporal velocity shifts in the Mg II broad emission lines of 0.36 < z < 2 quasars with multiple observations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For ∼10{sup 9} M{sub ☉} BHs in SMBH binaries, we are sensitive to velocity drifts for binary separations of ∼0.1 pc with orbital periods of ∼100 yr. We find seven candidate sub-parsec-scale binaries with velocity shifts >3.4σ ∼ 280 km s{sup –1}, where σ is our systematic error. Comparing the detectability of SMBH binaries with the number of candidates (N ≤ 7), we can rule out that most 10{sup 9} M{sub ☉} BHs exist in ∼0.03-0.2 pc scale binaries, in a scenario where binaries stall at sub-parsec scales for a Hubble time. We further constrain that ≤16% (one-third) of quasars host SMBH binaries after considering gas-assisted sub-parsec evolution of SMBH binaries, although this result is very sensitive to the assumed size of the broad line region. We estimate the detectability of SMBH binaries with ongoing or next-generation surveys (e.g., Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph), taking into account the evolution of the sub-parsec binary in circumbinary gas disks. These future observations will provide longer time baselines for searches similar to ours and may in turn constrain the evolutionary scenarios of SMBH binaries.

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DOE OSTI2013

The XMM-Newton spectrum of a candidate recoiling supermassive black hole: An elusive inverted P-Cygni profile

We present a detailed spectral analysis of new XMM-Newton data of the source CXOC J100043.1+020637, also known as CID-42, detected in the COSMOS survey at z = 0.359. Previous works suggested that CID-42 is a candidate recoiling supermassive black hole (SMBH) showing also an inverted P-Cygni profile in the X-ray spectra at ∼6 keV (rest) with an iron emission line plus a redshifted absorption line (detected at 3σ in previous XMM-Newton and Chandra observations). Detailed analysis of the absorption line suggested the presence of ionized material flowing into the black hole at high velocity. In the new long XMM-Newton observation, while the overall spectral shape remains constant, the continuum 2-10 keV flux decrease of ∼20% with respect to previous observation and the absorption line is undetected. The upper limit on the intensity of the absorption line is EW < 162 eV. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations show that the nondetection of the line is solely due to variation in the properties of the inflowing material, in agreement with the transient nature of these features, and that the intensity of the line is lower than the previously measured with a probability of 98.8%. In the scenario of CID-42 as a recoiling SMBH, the absorption line can be interpreted as being due to an inflow of gas with variable density that is located in the proximity of the SMBH and recoiling with it. New monitoring observations will be requested to further characterize this line.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

On the offset of barred galaxies from the black hole M {sub BH}-σ relationship

We use collisionless N-body simulations to determine how the growth of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) influences the nuclear kinematics in both barred and unbarred galaxies. In the presence of a bar, the increase in the velocity dispersion σ (within the effective radius) due to the growth of an SMBH is on average ≲ 10%, whereas the increase is only ≲ 4% in an unbarred galaxy. In a barred galaxy, the increase results from a combination of three separate factors: (1) orientation and inclination effects; (2) angular momentum transport by the bar that results in an increase in the central mass density; and (3) an increase in the vertical and radial velocity anisotropy of stars in the vicinity of the SMBH. In contrast, the growth of the SMBH in an unbarred galaxy causes the velocity distribution in the inner part of the nucleus to become less radially anisotropic. The increase in σ following the growth of the SMBH is insensitive to a variation of a factor of 10 in the final mass of the SMBH, showing that it is the growth process rather than the actual SMBH mass that alters bar evolution in a way that increases σ. We argue that using an axisymmetric stellar dynamical modeling code to measure SMBH masses in barred galaxies could result in a slight overestimate of the derived M {sub BH}, especially if a constant M/L ratio is assumed. We conclude that the growth of a black hole in the presence of a bar could result in an increase in σ that is roughly 4%-8% larger than the increase that occurs in an axisymmetric system. While the increase in σ due to SMBH growth in a barred galaxy might partially account for the claimed offset of barred galaxies and pseudo bulges from the M {sub BH}-σ relation obtained for elliptical galaxies and classical bulges in unbarred galaxies, it is inadequate to account for all of the offset.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nuclear star formation activity and black hole accretion in nearby Seyfert galaxies

Recent theoretical and observational works indicate the presence of a correlation between the star-formation rate (SFR) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity (and, therefore, the black hole accretion rate, M-dot {sub BH}) of Seyfert galaxies. This suggests a physical connection between the gas-forming stars on kpc scales and the gas on sub-pc scales that is feeding the black hole. We compiled the largest sample of Seyfert galaxies to date with high angular resolution (∼0.''4-0.''8) mid-infrared (8-13 μm) spectroscopy. The sample includes 29 Seyfert galaxies drawn from the AGN Revised Shapley-Ames catalog. At a median distance of 33 Mpc, our data allow us to probe nuclear regions on scales of ∼65 pc (median value). We found no general evidence of suppression of the 11.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the vicinity of these AGN, and we used this feature as a proxy for the SFR. We detected the 11.3 μm PAH feature in the nuclear spectra of 45% of our sample. The derived nuclear SFRs are, on average, five times lower than those measured in circumnuclear regions of 600 pc in size (median value). However, the projected nuclear SFR densities (median value of 22 M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1} kpc{sup –2}) are a factor of 20 higher than those measured on circumnuclear scales. This indicates that the SF activity per unit area in the central ∼65 pc region of Seyfert galaxies is much higher than at larger distances from their nuclei. We studied the connection between the nuclear SFR and M-dot {sub BH} and showed that numerical simulations reproduce our observed relation fairly well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The link between ejected stars, hardening and eccentricity growth of super massive black holes in galactic nuclei

The hierarchical galaxy formation picture suggests that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) observed in galactic nuclei today have grown from coalescence of massive black hole binaries (MBHB) after galaxy merging. Once the components of an MBHB become gravitationally bound, strong three-body encounters between the MBHB and stars dominate its evolution in a 'dry' gas-free environment and change the MBHB's energy and angular momentum (semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orientation). Here we present high-accuracy direct N-body simulations of spherical and axisymmetric (rotating) galactic nuclei with order of 10{sup 6} stars and two MBHs that are initially unbound. We analyze the properties of the ejected stars due to slingshot effects from three-body encounters with the MBHB in detail. Previous studies have investigated the eccentricity and energy changes of MBHs using approximate models or Monte Carlo three-body scatterings. We find general agreement with the average results of previous semi-analytic models for spherical galactic nuclei, but our results show a large statistical variation. Our new results show many more phase space details of how the process works, and also show the influence of stellar system rotation on the process. We detect that the angle between the orbital plane of the MBHBs and that of the stellar system (when it rotates) influences the phase-space properties of the ejected stars. We also find that MBHBs tend to switch stars with counter-rotating orbits into corotating orbits during their interactions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Microlens masses from astrometry and parallax in space-based surveys: From planets to black holes

We show that space-based microlensing experiments can recover lens masses and distances for a large fraction of all events (those with individual photometric errors ≲ 0.01 mag) using a combination of one-dimensional microlens parallaxes and astrometric microlensing. This will provide a powerful probe of the mass distributions of planets, black holes, and neutron stars, the distribution of planets as a function of Galactic environment, and the velocity distributions of black holes and neutron stars. While systematics are in principle a significant concern, we show that it is possible to vet against all systematics (known and unknown) using single-epoch precursor observations with the Hubble Space Telescope roughly 10 years before the space mission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Microlensing of sub-parsec massive binary black holes in lensed QSOs: Light curves and size-wavelength relation

Sub-parsec binary massive black holes (BBHs) have long been thought to exist in many QSOs but remain observationally elusive. In this paper, we propose a novel method to probe sub-parsec BBHs through microlensing of lensed QSOs. If a QSO hosts a sub-parsec BBH in its center, it is expected that the BBH is surrounded by a circumbinary disk, each component of the BBH is surrounded by a small accretion disk, and a gap is opened by the secondary component in between the circumbinary disk and the two small disks. Assuming such a BBH structure, we generate mock microlensing light curves for some QSO systems that host BBHs with typical physical parameters. We show that microlensing light curves of a BBH QSO system at the infrared-optical-UV bands can be significantly different from those of corresponding QSO system with a single massive black hole (MBH), mainly because of the existence of the gap and the rotation of the BBH (and its associated small disks) around the center of mass. We estimate the half-light radii of the emission region at different wavelengths from mock light curves and find that the obtained half-light radius versus wavelength relations of BBH QSO systems can be much flatter than those of single MBH QSO systems at a wavelength range determined by the BBH parameters, such as the total mass, mass ratio, separation, accretion rates, etc. The difference is primarily due to the existence of the gap. Such unique features on the light curves and half-light radius-wavelength relations of BBH QSO systems can be used to select and probe sub-parsec BBHs in a large number of lensed QSOs to be discovered by current and future surveys, including the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, the Large Synoptic Survey telescope, and Euclid.

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DOE OSTI2014

Multi-wavelength coverage of state transitions in the new black hole X-ray binary swift J1910.2-0546

Understanding how black holes accrete and supply feedback to their environment is one of the outstanding challenges of modern astrophysics. Swift J1910.2-0546 is a candidate black hole low-mass X-ray binary that was discovered in 2012 when it entered an accretion outburst. To investigate the binary configuration and the accretion morphology, we monitored the evolution of the outburst for ≅3 months at X-ray, UV, optical (B, V, R, I), and near-infrared (J, H, K) wavelengths using Swift and SMARTS. The source evolved from a hard to a soft X-ray spectral state with a relatively cold accretion disk that peaked at ≅0.5 keV. A Chandra/HETG spectrum obtained during this soft state did not reveal signatures of an ionized disk wind. Both the low disk temperature and the absence of a detectable wind could indicate that the system is viewed at relatively low inclination. The multi-wavelength light curves revealed two notable features that appear to be related to X-ray state changes. First, a prominent flux decrease was observed in all wavebands ≅ 1-2 weeks before the source entered the soft state. This dip occurred in (0.6-10 keV) X-rays ≅ 6 days later than at longer wavelengths, which could possibly reflect the viscous timescale of the disk. Second, about two weeks after the source transitioned back into the hard state, the UV emission significantly increased while the X-rays steadily decayed. We discuss how these observations may reflect changes in the accretion morphology, perhaps related to the quenching/launch of a jet or the collapse/recovery of a hot flow.

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DOE OSTI2014

Composition of an emission line system in black hole host globular cluster RZ2109

We present an analysis of optical spectra from the globular cluster RZ2109 in NGC 4472, which hosts the first unambiguous globular cluster black hole. We use these spectra to determine the elemental composition of the emission line system associated with this source, and to constrain the age and metallicity of the host globular cluster. For the emission line system of RZ2109, our analysis indicates the [O III] λ5007 equivalent width is 33.82 ± 0.39 Å and the Hβ equivalent width is 0.32 ± 0.32 Å, producing a formal [O III] λ5007/Hβ emission line ratio of 106 for a 3200 km s{sup –1} measurement aperture covering the full velocity width of the [O III] λ5007 line. Within a narrower 600 km s{sup –1} aperture covering the highest luminosity velocity structure in the line complex, we find [O III] λ5007/Hβ = 62. The measured [O III] λ5007/Hβ ratios are significantly higher than can be produced in radiative models of the emission line region with solar composition, and the confidence interval limits exclude all but models which have gas masses much larger than those for a single star. Therefore, we conclude that the region from which the [O III] λ5007 emission originates is hydrogen-depleted relative to solar composition gas. This finding is consistent with emission from an accretion-powered outflow driven by a hydrogen-depleted donor star, such as a white dwarf, being accreted onto a black hole.

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DOE OSTI2014

Disruption of a red giant star by a supermassive black hole and the case of PS1-10jh

The development of a new generation of theoretical models for tidal disruptions is timely, as increasingly diverse events are being captured in surveys of the transient sky. Recently, Gezari et al. reported a discovery of a new class of tidal disruption events: the disruption of a helium-rich stellar core, thought to be a remnant of a red giant (RG) star. Motivated by this discovery and in anticipation of others, we consider tidal interaction of an RG star with a supermassive black hole (SMBH) which leads to the stripping of the stellar envelope and subsequent inspiral of the compact core toward the black hole. Once the stellar envelope is removed the inspiral of the core is driven by tidal heating as well as the emission of gravitational radiation until the core either falls into the SMBH or is tidally disrupted. In the case of the tidal disruption candidate PS1-10jh, we find that there is a set of orbital solutions at high eccentricities in which the tidally stripped hydrogen envelope is accreted by the SMBH before the helium core is disrupted. This places the RG core in a portion of parameter space where strong tidal heating can lift the degeneracy of the compact remnant and disrupt it before it reaches the tidal radius. We consider how this sequence of events explains the puzzling absence of the hydrogen emission lines from the spectrum of PS1-10jh and gives rise to its other observational features.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Episodic jet power extracted from a spinning black hole surrounded by a neutrino-dominated accretion flow in gamma-ray bursts

It was suggested that the relativistic jets in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powered via the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) mechanism or the annihilation of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos from a neutrino cooling-dominated accretion flow (NDAF). The advection and diffusion of the large-scale magnetic field of an NDAF is calculated, and the external magnetic field is found to be dragged inward efficiently by the accretion flow for a typical magnetic Prandtl number P{sub m}=η/ν∼1. The maximal BZ jet power can be ∼10{sup 53}-10{sup 54} erg s{sup –1} for an extreme Kerr black hole, if an external magnetic field with 10{sup 14} Gauss is advected by the NDAF. This is roughly consistent with the field strength of the disk formed after a tidal disrupted magnetar. The accretion flow near the black hole horizon is arrested by the magnetic field if the accretion rate is below than a critical value for a given external field. The arrested accretion flow fails to drag the field inward and the field strength decays, and then the accretion re-starts, which leads to oscillating accretion. The typical timescale of such episodic accretion is of an order of one second. This can qualitatively explain the observed oscillation in the soft extended emission of short-type GRBs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Constraining sub-parsec binary supermassive black holes in quasars with multi-epoch spectroscopy. II. The population with kinematically offset broad Balmer emission lines

A small fraction of quasars have long been known to show bulk velocity offsets (of a few hundred to thousands of km s{sup –1}) in the broad Balmer lines with respect to the systemic redshift of the host galaxy. Models to explain these offsets usually invoke broad-line region gas kinematics/asymmetry around single black holes (BHs), orbital motion of massive (∼sub-parsec (sub-pc)) binary black holes (BBHs), or recoil BHs, but single-epoch spectra are unable to distinguish between these scenarios. The line-of-sight (LOS) radial velocity (RV) shifts from long-term spectroscopic monitoring can be used to test the BBH hypothesis. We have selected a sample of 399 quasars with kinematically offset broad Hβ lines from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Seventh Data Release quasar catalog, and have conducted second-epoch optical spectroscopy for 50 of them. Combined with the existing SDSS spectra, the new observations enable us to constrain the LOS RV shifts of broad Hβ lines with a rest-frame baseline of a few years to nearly a decade. While previous work focused on objects with extreme velocity offset (>10{sup 3} km s{sup –1}), we explore the parameter space with smaller (a few hundred km s{sup –1}) yet significant offsets (99.7% confidence). Using cross-correlation analysis, we detect significant (99% confidence) radial accelerations in the broad Hβ lines in 24 of the 50 objects, of ∼10-200 km s{sup –1} yr{sup –1} with a median measurement uncertainty of ∼10 km s{sup –1} yr{sup –1}, implying a high fraction of variability of the broad-line velocity on multi-year timescales. We suggest that 9 of the 24 detections are sub-pc BBH candidates, which show consistent velocity shifts independently measured from a second broad line (either Hα or Mg II) without significant changes in the broad-line profiles. Combining the results on the general quasar population studied in Paper I, we find a tentative anti-correlation between the velocity offset in the first-epoch spectrum and the average acceleration between two epochs, which could be explained by orbital phase modulation when the time separation between two epochs is a non-negligible fraction of the orbital period of the motion causing the line displacement. We discuss the implications of our results for the identification of sub-pc BBH candidates in offset-line quasars and for the constraints on their frequency and orbital parameters.

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