1 Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, Pino Torinese, Italy
2 Tuorla Obsservatory, Tuorla, Finland
Title of the communication: A beaming model for the OJ 287 periodic optical outbursts.
Preliminary abstract (12 lines max.):
We present a model describing the quasi periodic outbursts in blazar OJ 287.
The model consists of a pair of supermassive black holes in a binary system,
both of them originating a jet. The combination of a long term precession of
the jet axes appropriately oriented with respect to the orbital axis with the
bending of the jets due to interaction of their magnetized plasma with the
ambient medium gives rise to a time-dependent orientation of the emitting
outflows. The observed periodic outbursts are due to relativistic beaming
effect when part of the emission of the bent jets is beamed in our direction.
The theoretical light curve, for a given choice of model parameters, describes
the observational data very well, and predicts the future behaviour.