Multi-band optical photometric variability of the blazar OJ 287 from 2015 to 2025

arXiv:2607.07201 · astro-ph.HE · Submitted 2026-07-08 · Read on arXiv

Alok C. Gupta, Karan Dogra, Mark Kidger, Mauri J. Valtonen, Paul J. Wiita, Pankaj Kushwaha, Sergey S. Savchenko, Sofia O. Kurtanidze, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Alan P. Marscher, Katsura Matsumoto, Lang Cui, Shao Ming Hu, Goran Damljanovic, Rumen Bachev, O. Vince, Mai Liao, Zhongxiang Wang, A. Darriba, S. Haque, F. S. Alfaro, J. B. Amatller, J. M. F. Andujar, S. Arnold, T. Arranz, M. Bachini, C. L. Barcelo, S. Boeva, G. A. Borman, D. Boyd, D. Buczinski, J. D. Casal, X. Chen, J. M. Cores, F. C. Cucarella, P. U. Devanand, V. Dhiman, L. T. Espasa, J. H. Fan, R. G. Farfan, J. R. Fernandez, F. Garcia, R. C. Garcia, H. Gaur, J. C. Gomez, J. L. S. Gonzalez, J. L. Gonzalez-Carballo, T. S. Grishina, F. H. Grondona, M. F. Gu, H. Guo, V. A. Hagen-Thorn, G. Hurst, S. Ibryamov, R. Z. Ivanidze, N. James, B. Jardine, S. Johnstone, M. D. Jovanovic, N. Kalita, S. Karge, S. Kishore, E. N. Kopatskaya, O. M. Kurtanidze, A. Kurtenkov, E. G. Larionova, E. R. Lorenz, J. Lozano, E. F. Mananes, F. L. Martinez, M. Mobberley, M. Morales-Aimar, D. A. Morozova, M. G. Nikolashvili, Y. Nikolov, R. N. Nogues, P. A. Novikova, L. M. Penas, A. E. Perez, C. Perello, R. Pickard, F. G. Pinilla, G. Poyner, F. Rahmatullaeva, B. Rajkumar, N. G. Ribes, E. Semkov, E. V. Shishkina, M. Stojanovic, A. Strigachev, T. Tripathi, Yu. V. Troitskaya, I. S. Troitskiy, J. Valero, A. A. Vasilyev, B. Villarroel, A. E. Volvach, L. N. Volvach, S. J. Wagner, Z. R. Weaver, Wen-Xin Yang, Z. Zhang, A. V. Zhovtan, W. Zuo

astro-ph.HE

Submitted: 2026-07-08

Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJS, 16 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

Code: https://github.com/LSST-sersag/pyzdcf

License: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

The gist: We present the most densely sampled multi-band optical photometric observations of the peculiar BL Lacertae object OJ 287 from 2015 to 2025 with a focus on its optical activity on diverse timescales.

Terminology

Abstract

We present the most densely sampled multi-band optical photometric observations of the peculiar BL Lacertae object OJ 287 from 2015 to 2025 with a focus on its optical activity on diverse timescales. We present a total of 2296, 10927, 11484, and 2982 data points in B, V, R, and I bands, respectively. The densely sampled observations allow us to keep track of the source evolution that it has exhibited since the start of the predicted major optical flaring activity at the end of 2015. The study reveals clear and persistent bluer when brighter trends in both the long-term and short-term variations. Different bands were cross-correlated with discrete correlation functions, which peak at zero lag, implying co-spatial emission. Using eight optical spectra in the low flux states of OJ 287 taken from 2017 October 21 to 2017 November 22, from Steward Observatory, we estimate the central black hole mass to be at least 3.89 times 9 from the [O III] line width. The emission mechanism of the binary black hole blazar, and its possible implication in various aspects of multi-messenger astronomy are briefly discussed.

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