Interpreting black hole QPOs

Abramowicz, Marek A.; Kluźniak, W.

doi:10.1063/1.1780993

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…-2 -accretion disk 16,17 , and there is observational support that they do for stellar-mass black holes 10 (3-50 M ⊙ ). M82 X-1's previous mass estimates of a few hundred solar masses combined with the Type-C identification 2,4,9 of its mHz X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations suggest that 3:2 ratio, twin-peak, high-frequency oscillations analogous to those seen in stellar-mass black holes, if present, should be detectable in the frequency range of a few Hz 16 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

A 400-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M82

Pasham

Strohmayer

Mushotzky

2014

Nature

194

197

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The brightest X-ray source in M82 has been thought to be an intermediatemass black hole (10 2−4 solar masses, M ⊙ ) because of its extremely high luminosity and variability characteristics 1−6 , although some models suggest that its mass may be only ∼ 20 M ⊙ 3,7 . The previous mass estimates are based on scaling relations which use low-frequency characteristic timescales which have large intrinsic uncertainties 8,9 . In stellar-mass black holes we know that the high frequency quasi-periodic oscillations that occur in a 3:2 ratio (100-450 Hz) are stable and scale inversely with black hole mass with a reasonably small dispersion 10−15 . The discovery of such stable oscillations thus potentially offers an alternative and less ambiguous mass determination for intermediate-mass black holes, but has hitherto not been realized. Here, we report stable, twin-peak (3:2 frequency ratio) X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations from M82 X-1 at the frequencies of 3.32±0.06Hz and 5.07±0.06 Hz. Assuming that we can scale the stellar-mass relationship, we estimate its black hole mass to be 428±105 M ⊙ . In addition, we can estimate the mass using the relativistic precession model, from which we get a value ofOscillations arising from general relativistic effects should scale inversely with the black hole mass if they arise from orbital motion near the innermost stable circular orbit in the We detected two power spectral peaks at 3.32±0.06 Hz (coherence, Q = centroid frequency (ν)/width(∆ν) > 27) and 5.07±0.06 Hz (Q > 40) consistent with a 3:2 frequency ratio ( Fig. 1a, b). The combined statistical significance of the detection is greater than 4.7σ (see Methods for details).The proportional counter array's field of view (1 • ×1 • ) of M82 includes a number of accreting X-ray sources in addition to M82 X-1 18 . The remarkable stability of the two quasiperiodic oscillations on timescales of a few years (Movies 1 & 2), their 3:2 frequency ratio and their high oscillation luminosities strongly suggest they are not low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations from a contaminating stellar-mass black hole (see Methods for details). Also a pulsar origin is very unlikely for several reasons. First, a pulsar signal would be much more coherent than that of the observed quasi-periodic oscillations, which clearly have a finite width. Second, based on the observed high quasi-periodic oscillation luminosities it is extremely implausible that they originate from a pulsar (see Methods for details). Finally, it would be highly coincidental to have two pulsars in the same field of view with spins in the 3:2 ratio. Also, based on the average power spectra of the background sky and a sample of accreting super-massive black holes monitored by the proportional counter array in the same epoch as M82, we rule out an instrumental origin for these oscillations 3 & 4). This leaves M82 X-1, persistently the brightest source in the field of view, as the most likely source associated with the 3:2 ratio quasi-periodic oscillation pair.We estimated M82 X-1's black hole ...

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mentioning

confidence: 93%

A 400-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M82

Pasham

Strohmayer

Mushotzky

2014

Nature

194

197

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“…Shafee et al 2007Shafee et al , 2008, and references there), line profile fitting (e.g. Fabian & Vaughan 2003), or studying small amplitude oscillations (see Abramowicz 2005, for references). It seems that the present understanding of the black hole accretion phenomenon rests, in a major way, on studies of stationary and axially symmetric models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Polish doughnuts revisited

Qian¹,

Abramowicz²,

Fragile³

et al. 2009

A&A

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We construct a new family of analytic models of black hole accretion disks in dynamical equilibria. Our construction is based on assuming distributions of angular momentum and entropy. For a particular choice of the distribution of angular momentum, we calculate the shapes of equipressure surfaces. The equipressure surfaces we find are similar to those in thick, slim and thin disks, and to those in ADAFs.

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“…An idea that initially occurred in the papers of Aliev & Gal'tsov (1981); Aliev et al (1986) and later reappeared and further elaborated in the works of Abramowicz & Kluzniak (2004); Abramowicz et al (2004); , relates the HF QPOs to resonances between the fundamental frequencies of motion, epicyclic and orbital, of test particles orbiting around the central object along circular geodesics in the equatorial plane 2 . They proposed two large groups of models -parametric resonance models and forced resonance models.…”

Section: Nonlinear Resonance Models (Nrm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Keplerian nonlinear resonance models are the first cousins of the epicyclic NRM (Abramowicz & Kluzniak 2004). In the latter models the resonance occurs between the radial epicyclic frequency and the vertical one.…”

Section: Keplerian Nonlinear Resonance Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting models for the high-frequency QPOs with Lense–Thirring precession

Stefanov

2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) have been observed in the power-density spectra of some low-mass X-ray binaries(LMXB) containing a black hole. The two major groups of QPOs -low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF)-have rather different properties. That is why they are usually studied separately. In the literature one can find a large number of models for the high-frequency QPOs but not so many for the low-frequency ones. HF QPOs have attracted significant research efforts due to their potential to provide indispensable information for the properties of the black hole, for its accretion disc and for strong field gravity in general. However, in order to interpret the data for the HF QPOs of the observed objects we have to fix a model. Here we propose a simple test which could allow us to sift the models. The test is based on five rather general assumptions concerning the nature of the central object in black-hole binaries and the mechanism for the generation of the LF QPOs observed in the PDS of such objects. In other words we combine facts that we know about the LF and the HF QPOs of several objects and search for conflicts. As a result we single out a model for the HF QPOs -the 3 : 2 nolinear resonance model. As a byproduct of this study we propose loose constraints on the mass of the LMXB H 1743-322.

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Interpreting black hole QPOs

Cited by 15 publications

References 24 publications

A 400-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M82

A 400-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M82

The Polish doughnuts revisited

Confronting models for the high-frequency QPOs with Lense–Thirring precession

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