Do intermediate mass black holes exist?

Ward, M. J.

doi:10.1017/s174392130400136x

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

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“…While there is evidence of a binary nature of these sources, e.g. in M51, in IC342 and in Circinus (Ward 2004;Kuntz et al 2005), the nature of their compact accretors remains somewhat controversial. A possibility is represented by beamed models with stellar mass black holes where a mechanical collimation in a thick disc or a Doppler boosting from a jet in a microblazar might produce an apparent super Eddington emission up to a factor ∼ 10 explaining the nature of some ULXs with luminosities below ∼ 10 40 erg s −1 (King et al 2001;Körding et al 2002;Mushotzky 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ultraluminous X-ray source in M82: an intermediate-mass black hole with a giant companion

Patruno

Zwart

Dewi

et al. 2006

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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The starburst galaxy M82, at a distance of 12 million light years, is the host of an unusually bright 2.4–16 × 1040 erg s−1 X‐ray point source, which is best explained by an accreting black hole 102 to 104 times more massive than the Sun. Though the strongest candidate for a so‐called intermediate‐mass black hole, the only support stems from the observed luminosity and the 0.05–0.1 Hz quasi‐periodicity in its signal. Interestingly, the 7–12 Myr old star cluster MGG‐11 which has been associated with the X‐ray source is sufficiently dense that an intermediate mass black hole could have been produced in the cluster core via collision runaway. The recently discovered 62.0 ± 2.5 d periodicity in the X‐ray source X‐1 further supports the hypothesis that this source is powered by a black hole several hundred times more massive than the Sun. We perform detailed binary evolution simulations with an accreting compact object of 10–5000 M⊙ and find that the X‐ray luminosity, the age of the cluster, the observed quasi‐periodic oscillations and the now observed orbital period are explained best by a black hole of 200–5000 M⊙ that accretes material from a 22–25 M⊙ giant companion in a state of Roche‐lobe contact. Interestingly, such a companion star is consistent with the expectation based on the tidal capture in a young and dense star cluster such as MGG‐11, making the picture self‐consistent.

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