Chandra Observation of an X-ray Outbursting Intermediate-mass Black Hole Candidate
Abstract
Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH, ~10^2-10^5 solar mass) have been long sought after as they are associated with several important astrophysical processes and in tight binaries could emit gravitational waves. The best IMBH candidates are hyperluminous off-nuclear X-ray sources (HLX) with L_X >10^41 erg/s, but very few are known. We have found a new HLX candidate (L_X ~10^43 erg/s), which has a candidate host galaxy (z=0.145) with a possible ~1" offset and is experiencing a prolonged X-ray outburst. We require Chandra's supreme spatial resolution to confirm the off-nuclear nature, which would make it one of the best candidates for off-nuclear IMBHs known.
- Publication:
-
Chandra Proposal
- Pub Date:
- September 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cxo..prop.4414L