Spikey: self-lensing flares from eccentric SMBH binaries
Spikey: self-lensing flares from eccentric SMBH binaries
We examine the light curves of two quasars, motivated by recent suggestions that a supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) can exhibit sharp lensing spikes. We model the variability of each light curve as due to a combination of two relativistic effects: the orbital relativistic Doppler boost and gravitational binary self-lensing. …