Bibcode
Earnshaw, H.; Roberts, T.; Walton, D.; Lansbury, G.; Heil, L.; Done, C.; Harrison, F.; Sutton, A.; Middleton, M.; Mezcua, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Extremes of Black Hole Accretion, Proceedings of the conference held 8-10 June, 2015 in Madrid, Spain. Online at http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/workshops/2015_science/, id.27
Advertised on:
7
2015
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We undertake a study of M51 ULX-7, using archival data from XMM-Newton,
Chandra and NuSTAR, and optical and radio data from HST and VLA. The
source has a consistently hard powerlaw X-ray spectrum with
Γ˜1.5 and has high short-term variability, with all
XMM-Newton observations having 30-40 percent rms. This is unusual
variability behaviour for a ULX as we would expect highly variable ULXs
to have soft spectra. The power spectrum features a break at
˜10^{-3} Hz, from low frequency spectral index α=-0.1 to
high frequency spectral index α=-0.8, analogous to the low
frequency break found in power spectra of black holes accreting in the
low/hard state. We do not observe a corresponding high frequency break,
however taking the white noise level as frequency upper limit, we can
calculate a black hole mass upper limit of 9.12×10^{4} solar
masses, assuming that the ULX is in the low/hard state. While there is
no radio detection, we find a flux density upper limit of 87
μJy/beam. Using the X-ray/radio fundamental plane, we calculate a
black hole mass upper limit of 1.95×10^{5} solar masses.
Therefore, this ULX is consistent with being an IMBH accreting in the
low/hard state.