Finding binary active galactic nuclei candidates by the centroid shift in imaging surveys II. Testing the method with SDSS J233635.75-010733.7

Abstract

In Liu (2015), we propose selecting binary active galactic nuclei (AGNs) candidates using the centroid shift of the images, which is induced by the non-synchronous variations of the two nuclei. In this paper, a known binary AGN (SDSS J233635.75-010733.7) is employed to verify the ability of this method. Using 162 exposures in the $R$ band of \textit{Palomar Transient Factory} (PTF), an excess of dispersion in the positional distribution of the binary AGN is detected, though the two nuclei cannot be resolved in the images of PTF. We also propose a new method to compare the position of the binary AGN in PTF $g$ and $R$ band and find the difference is highly significant even only with 20 exposures. This new method is efficient for two nuclei with different spectral energy distributions, e.g., type I + type II AGN or off-set AGN. Large-scale surveys, e.g., the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, are expected to discover a large sample of binary AGN candidates with these methods.