---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '23159'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has now seen first light, and over a 10 year
    duration, Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is projected to catalog tens
    of millions of quasars, many of which are expected to be associated with subparsec
    supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). Out of these SMBHBs, up to thousands
    of relatively massive binary-quasars are expected to exhibit gravitational self-lensing
    flares (SLFs) that last for at least 20–30 days. We assess the effectiveness of
    the Lomb-Scargle (LS) periodogram and matched filters (MFs) as methods for systematic
    searches for these binaries, using toy-models of hydrodynamical, Doppler, and
    self-lensing variability from equal-mass, eccentric SMBHBs. We inject SLFs into
    random realizations of damped random walk (DRW) lightcurves, representing stochastic
    quasar variability, and compute the LS periodogram with and without the SLF. We
    find that periodograms of SLF+DRW light-curves do not have maximum peak heights
    that could not arise from DRW-only periodograms. On the other hand, the matched
    filter signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can distinguish SLFs from noise even with LSST-like
    cadences and DRW noise. Furthermore, we develop a three-step procedure with matched
    filters, which can also recover injected binary parameters from these light-curves.
    We expect this method to be computationally efficient enough to be applicable
    to millions of quasar light-curves in LSST.
acknowledgement: We acknowledge support by NASA Grants No. 80NSSC22K0822 and No. 80NSSC24K0440
  (Z. H). V. A. V. acknowledges support through the David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
  National Science Foundation under No. PHY-2019786 (The NSF AI Institute for Artificial
  Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions, [63]), No. AST-2433718, No. AST-2407922
  and No. AST-2406110, as well as an Aramont Fellowship for Emerging Science Research.
  J. D. acknowledges support by a joint Columbia/Flatiron Postdoctoral Fellowship.
  Research at the Flatiron Institute is supported by the Simons Foundation. This research
  was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958
  to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP). This research has made use
  of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System. The authors acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing
  Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing computational resources.
  V. A. V. acknowledges support through the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, National
  Science Foundation under No. AST-2433718, No. AST-2407922 and No. AST-2406110, as
  well as an Aramont Fellowship for Emerging Science Research. This work is supported
  by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement No. PHY-2019786 (The
  NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions, [63]).
article_number: '043055'
article_processing_charge: Yes (in subscription journal)
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Kevin S
  full_name: Park, Kevin S
  id: c0a7603b-66e5-11f0-aaf9-b02edf8b2969
  last_name: Park
- first_name: Zoltán
  full_name: Haiman, Zoltán
  id: 7c006e8c-cc0d-11ee-8322-cb904ef76f36
  last_name: Haiman
  orcid: 0000-0003-3633-5403
- first_name: Chengcheng
  full_name: Xin, Chengcheng
  last_name: Xin
- first_name: Tzuken
  full_name: Shen, Tzuken
  last_name: Shen
- first_name: Ashley
  full_name: Villar, Ashley
  last_name: Villar
- first_name: Jordy
  full_name: Davelaar, Jordy
  last_name: Davelaar
citation:
  ama: Park KS, Haiman Z, Xin C, Shen T, Villar A, Davelaar J. Self-lensing flares
    from black hole binaries. V. Systematic searches in LSST. <i>Physical Review D</i>.
    2026;113(4). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl">10.1103/p328-62sl</a>
  apa: Park, K. S., Haiman, Z., Xin, C., Shen, T., Villar, A., &#38; Davelaar, J.
    (2026). Self-lensing flares from black hole binaries. V. Systematic searches in
    LSST. <i>Physical Review D</i>. American Physical Society. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl">https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl</a>
  chicago: Park, Kevin S, Zoltán Haiman, Chengcheng Xin, Tzuken Shen, Ashley Villar,
    and Jordy Davelaar. “Self-Lensing Flares from Black Hole Binaries. V. Systematic
    Searches in LSST.” <i>Physical Review D</i>. American Physical Society, 2026.
    <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl">https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl</a>.
  ieee: K. S. Park, Z. Haiman, C. Xin, T. Shen, A. Villar, and J. Davelaar, “Self-lensing
    flares from black hole binaries. V. Systematic searches in LSST,” <i>Physical
    Review D</i>, vol. 113, no. 4. American Physical Society, 2026.
  ista: Park KS, Haiman Z, Xin C, Shen T, Villar A, Davelaar J. 2026. Self-lensing
    flares from black hole binaries. V. Systematic searches in LSST. Physical Review
    D. 113(4), 043055.
  mla: Park, Kevin S., et al. “Self-Lensing Flares from Black Hole Binaries. V. Systematic
    Searches in LSST.” <i>Physical Review D</i>, vol. 113, no. 4, 043055, American
    Physical Society, 2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl">10.1103/p328-62sl</a>.
  short: K.S. Park, Z. Haiman, C. Xin, T. Shen, A. Villar, J. Davelaar, Physical Review
    D 113 (2026).
das_tickbox: '1'
dataavailabilitystatement: The data are not publicly available. The data are available
  from the authors upon reasonable request.
date_created: 2026-10-18T22:01:53Z
date_published: 2026-02-25T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-10-19T08:08:21Z
day: '25'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: GradSch
- _id: ZoHa
doi: 10.1103/p328-62sl
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2512.08427'
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fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1103/p328-62sl
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '       113'
issue: '4'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '02'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: Physical Review D
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2470-0029
  issn:
  - 2470-0010
publication_status: published
publisher: American Physical Society
quality_controlled: '1'
researchdata_availability: no
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
supplementarymaterial: yes
title: Self-lensing flares from black hole binaries. V. Systematic searches in LSST
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type: journal_article
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