1. Bright radio emission from an ultraluminous stellar-mass microquasar in M 31.
- Author
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Middleton MJ, Miller-Jones JC, Markoff S, Fender R, Henze M, Hurley-Walker N, Scaife AM, Roberts TP, Walton D, Carpenter J, Macquart JP, Bower GC, Gurwell M, Pietsch W, Haberl F, Harris J, Daniel M, Miah J, Done C, Morgan JS, Dickinson H, Charles P, Burwitz V, Della Valle M, Freyberg M, Greiner J, Hernanz M, Hartmann DH, Hatzidimitriou D, Riffeser A, Sala G, Seitz S, Reig P, Rau A, Orio M, Titterington D, and Grainge K
- Abstract
A subset of ultraluminous X-ray sources (those with luminosities of less than 10(40) erg s(-1); ref. 1) are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto black holes with masses of ∼5-20M cicled dot, probably by means of an accretion disk. The X-ray and radio emission are coupled in such Galactic sources; the radio emission originates in a relativistic jet thought to be launched from the innermost regions near the black hole, with the most powerful emission occurring when the rate of infalling matter approaches a theoretical maximum (the Eddington limit). Only four such maximal sources are known in the Milky Way, and the absorption of soft X-rays in the interstellar medium hinders the determination of the causal sequence of events that leads to the ejection of the jet. Here we report radio and X-ray observations of a bright new X-ray source in the nearby galaxy M 31, whose peak luminosity exceeded 10(39) erg s(-1). The radio luminosity is extremely high and shows variability on a timescale of tens of minutes, arguing that the source is highly compact and powered by accretion close to the Eddington limit onto a black hole of stellar mass. Continued radio and X-ray monitoring of such sources should reveal the causal relationship between the accretion flow and the powerful jet emission.
- Published
- 2013
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