The accretion disc, jets and environment of the intermediate mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1
Abstract
The Ultra Luminous X-ray (ULX) source HLX-1 in the galaxy ESO 243-49 has an observed maximum unabsorbed X-ray luminosity of 1.3 × 10^{42} erg/s (0.2-10.0 keV). From the conservative assumption that this value exceeds the Eddington limit by at most a factor of 10, the minimum mass is then 500 M_⊙. The X-ray luminosity varies by a factor of 40 with an apparent recurrence timescale of approximately one year. This X-ray variability is associated with spectral state transitions similar to those seen in black hole X-ray binaries. Here we discuss our recent modelling of all the X-ray data for HLX-1 and show that it supports the idea that this ULX is powered by sub- and near Eddington accretion onto an intermediate mass black hole. We also present evidence for transient radio emission which is consistent with a discrete jet ejection event as well as comment on the nature of the environment around HLX-1 in light of recent Hubble Space Telescope photometry.
- Publication:
-
SF2A-2012: Proceedings of the Annual meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1211.0831
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1211.0831
- Bibcode:
- 2012sf2a.conf..631W
- Keywords:
-
- Accretion;
- accretion discs;
- Black hole physics;
- Galaxies: individual: ESO 243-49;
- Methods: data analysis;
- X-rays: individual: HLX-1;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, three figures, to appear in the proceedings of the SF2A 2012