Separate the second component of the 2005/2006 tidal flare from the 2007 impact flare

Determine how to isolate the second component of the 2005/2006 tidal flare from the temporally nearby 2007 impact flare in OJ 287 observations.

Background

The paper describes tidal flares as potentially having two components, with the second component expected to be larger than the first. For the 2005/2006 event, however, the second tidal component overlaps or is confused with the 2007 impact flare.

Because the components cannot presently be cleanly separated, the paper does not analyze the second component of the 2005/2006 event. Resolving it would improve comparisons between successive tidal flares and tests of the accretion-flow model.

References

It is not clear how to isolate the second component of the 2005/2006 tidal flare from the 2007 impact flare, and we will not study it here.

— The October 2022 flare in OJ 287 and the mass of its primary black hole  (2609.04998 - Valtonen et al., 4 Sep 2026) in Section 2, paragraph beginning “As to the other expected properties of the 2022 October flare”