M. Mezcua
Radio observations of extreme ULXs : revealing the most powerful ULX radio nebula ever or the jet of an intermediate-mass black hole?
Mezcua, M.; Roberts, T.P.; Sutton, A.D.; Lobanov, A.P.
Abstract
The most extreme ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), with LX > 5 × 1040 erg s−1, are amongst the best candidates for hosting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in the haloes of galaxies. Jet radio emission is expected from a sub-Eddington accreting IMBH in the low/hard (radio bright) state. In a search for such IMBH jet radio emission, we have observed with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 5 GHz a sample of seven extreme ULXs whose X-ray properties indicate they are in the hard state. Assuming they remain in this state, the non-detection of radio emission for six of the target sources allows us to constrain their black hole mass to the IMBH regime, thus ruling out a supermassive black hole nature. For the extreme ULX in the galaxy NGC 2276, we detect extended radio emission formed by two lobes of total flux density 1.43 ± 0.22 mJy and size ∼650 pc. The X-ray counterpart is located between the two lobes, suggesting the presence of a black hole with jet radio emission. The radio luminosity allows us to constrain the black hole mass of this source to the IMBH regime; hence, the extreme ULX in NGC 2276 could be the first detection of extended jet radio emission from an IMBH. The radio emission could also possibly come from a radio nebula powered by the ULX with a minimum total energy of 5.9 × 1052 erg, thus constituting the most powerful and largest ULX radio nebula ever observed.
Citation
Mezcua, M., Roberts, T., Sutton, A., & Lobanov, A. (2013). Radio observations of extreme ULXs : revealing the most powerful ULX radio nebula ever or the jet of an intermediate-mass black hole?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 436(4), 3128-3134. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt1794
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | Dec 21, 2013 |
Deposit Date | Dec 13, 2013 |
Publicly Available Date | Jan 27, 2014 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Print ISSN | 0035-8711 |
Electronic ISSN | 1365-2966 |
Publisher | Royal Astronomical Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 436 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 3128-3134 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt1794 |
Keywords | Accretion discs, Black hole physics, ISM, Radio continuum, X-rays, Binaries. |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1443086 |
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Copyright Statement
This article has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
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