Puzzling accretion onto a black hole in the ultraluminous X-ray source M 101 ULX-1

Liu, Ji Feng; Bregman, Joel N.; Bai, Yu; Justham, Stephen; Crowther, P. A.

doi:10.1038/nature12762

Cited by 180 publications

(219 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…Then, using the constraints on the Eddington luminosity, Middleton et al (2013) estimate a black hole mass of ∼10 M . Also, Liu et al (2013) confirm a probable Wolf-Rayet companion star to a supersoft ULX in M101. They use this to calculate a mass function, and find that it likely contains an ∼20-30 M black hole.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Irradiated, colour-temperature-corrected accretion discs in ultraluminous X-ray sources

Sutton¹,

Done²,

Roberts³

2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Although attempts have been made to constrain the stellar types of optical counterparts to ULXs, the detection of optical variability instead suggests that they may be dominated by reprocessed emission from X-rays which irradiate the outer accretion disc. Here, we report results from a combined X-ray and optical spectral study of a sample of ULXs, which were selected for having broadened disc-like X-ray spectra, and known optical counterparts. We simultaneously fit optical and X-ray data from ULXs with a new spectral model of emission from an irradiated, colour-temperaturecorrected accretion disc around a black hole, with a central Comptonising corona. We find that the ULXs require reprocessing fractions of ∼ 10 −3 , which is similar to sub-Eddington thermal dominant state BHBs, but less than has been reported for ULXs with soft ultraluminous X-ray spectra. We suggest that the reprocessing fraction may be due to the opposing effects of self-shielding in a geometrically thick super-critical accretion disc, and reflection from far above the central black hole by optically thin material ejected in a natal super-Eddington wind. Then, the higher reprocessing fractions reported for ULXs with wind-dominated X-ray spectra may be due to enhanced scattering onto the outer disc via the stronger wind in these objects. Alternatively, the accretion discs in these ULXs may not be particularly geometrically thick, rather they may be similar in this regard to the thermal dominant state BHBs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Irradiated, colour-temperature-corrected accretion discs in ultraluminous X-ray sources

Sutton¹,

Done²,

Roberts³

2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Gilfanov et al 2004, Luangtip et al 2014 continues to this day as new observations arise, and the balance has tipped recently in favour of stellar-mass BHs and NSs (M101 ULX-1, Liu et al 2013;NGC7793 P13, Motch et al 2014;M-82 X-2, Bachetti et al 2014) rather than IMBHs. It is actually interesting that the observations do not favour the "simpler" resolution of this issue: the main difficulty with ULXs is that they should not radiate above the Eddington limit (L Edd = 1.3 × 10 38 (MX /M ) erg s −1 ), and IMBHs with masses MX ∼10 2−4 M would remain comfortably below this limit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another class of objects thought to contain stellar-mass BHs are the ULX sources (Liu et al 2013, Motch et al 2014. Their X-ray luminosities (10 39 −10 41 erg s −1 ) exceed the Eddington limit for a NS by 1 − 3 orders of magnitude.…”

Section: High-mass X-ray Binariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the dynamical case for a massive black hole in IC10 X-1

Laycock

Maccarone

Christodoulou

2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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The relative phasing of the X-ray eclipse ephemeris and optical radial velocity (RV) curve for the X-ray binary IC10 X-1 suggests the He[λ4686] emission-line originates in a shadowed sector of the stellar wind that avoids ionization by X-rays from the compact object. The line attains maximum blueshift when the wind is directly toward us at mid X-ray eclipse, as is also seen in Cygnus X-3. If the RV curve is unrelated to stellar motion, evidence for a massive black hole evaporates because the mass function of the binary is unknown. The reported X-ray luminosity, spectrum, slow QPO, and broad eclipses caused by absorption/scattering in the WR wind are all consistent with either a low-stellar-mass BH or a NS. For a NS, the centre of mass lies inside the WR envelope whose motion is then far below the observed 370 km/s RV amplitude, while the velocity of the compact object is as high as 600 km/s. The resulting 0.4% doppler variation of X-ray spectral lines could be confirmed by missions in development. These arguments also apply to other putative BH binaries whose RV and eclipse curves are not yet phase-connected. Theories of BH formation and predicted rates of gravitational wave sources may need revision.

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“…It is suggested that ULXs are also powered by accretion onto stellar-mass black holes (< 100M⊙) at or in excess of the ⋆ E-mail: cpinto@ast.cam.ac.uk Eddington limit (e.g. King et al 2001, Poutanen et al 2007, Gladstone et al 2009, Liu et al 2013 or accretion at more sedate Eddington ratios onto intermediate mass black holes (10 3−5 M⊙, e.g. Greene and Ho 2007, Farrell et al 2009, Webb at al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From ultraluminous X-ray sources to ultraluminous supersoft sources: NGC 55 ULX, the missing link

Pinto

Alston

Soria

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

127

188

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In recent work with high-resolution grating spectrometers (RGS) aboard XMM-Newton Pinto et al. (2016) have discovered that two bright and archetypal ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have strong relativistic winds in agreement with theoretical predictions of high accretion rates. It has been proposed that such winds can become optically thick enough to block and reprocess the disk X-ray photons almost entirely, making the source appear as a soft thermal emitter or ultraluminous supersoft Xray source (ULS). To test this hypothesis we have studied a ULX where the wind is strong enough to cause significant absorption of the hard X-ray continuum: NGC 55 ULX. The RGS spectrum of NGC 55 ULX shows a wealth of emission and absorption lines blueshifted by significant fractions of the light speed (0.01 − 0.20)c indicating the presence of a powerful wind. The wind has a complex dynamical structure with the ionization state increasing with the outflow velocity, which may indicate launching from different regions of the accretion disk. The comparison with other ULXs such as NGC 1313 X-1 and NGC 5408 X-1 suggests that NGC 55 ULX is being observed at higher inclination. The wind partly absorbs the source flux above 1 keV, generating a spectral drop similar to that observed in ULSs. The softening of the spectrum at lower (∼ Eddington) luminosities and the detection of a soft lag agree with the scenario of wind clumps crossing the line of sight, partly absorbing and reprocessing the hard X-rays from the innermost region.

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Puzzling accretion onto a black hole in the ultraluminous X-ray source M 101 ULX-1

Cited by 180 publications

References 43 publications

Irradiated, colour-temperature-corrected accretion discs in ultraluminous X-ray sources

Irradiated, colour-temperature-corrected accretion discs in ultraluminous X-ray sources

Revisiting the dynamical case for a massive black hole in IC10 X-1

From ultraluminous X-ray sources to ultraluminous supersoft sources: NGC 55 ULX, the missing link

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