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arXiv · 2210.16331

Optical and X-ray Follow-Up to a Globular Cluster Ultraluminous X-ray Source in NGC 4472

Wasundara R. Athukoralalage·Kristen C. Dage·Stephen E. Zepf·Arash Bahramian·Edward M. Cackett·Arunav Kundu·Thomas J. Maccarone
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Abstract

NGC 4472 is home to five ultraluminous X-ray sources hosted by globular clusters. These sources have been suggested as good black hole candidates in extragalactic globular clusters$-$ a highly sought after population that may provide observational information regarding the progenitors of merging black hole binaries. In this body of work, we present X-ray and optical follow up to one of these sources, CXOUJ1229410+075744 (GCU1). We find no evidence of [OIII] optical emission in GCU1 which indicates a lack of significant evidence for super-Eddington outflows, unlike what is seen in a handful of ULXs in extragalactic GCs. X-ray monitoring from 2019-2021 shows no detected X-ray emission above a few $\times$ $10^{38}$ erg/s. Comparisons of the multi-wavelength properties to disc-dominated, near Eddington Galactic black hole low mass X-ray binaries (GRS 1915+105 and XTEJ1817-330) suggests that GCU1 may show similar behaviour to GRS 1915+105 in terms of X-ray variability and similar relationships between $L_X$ and $kT$, with GCU1 showing maximum X-ray luminosities one order of magnitude higher.

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Wasundara R. Athukoralalage, Kristen C. Dage, Stephen E. Zepf, Arash Bahramian, Edward M. Cackett, Arunav Kundu, Thomas J. Maccarone. 2022-10-28. Optical and X-ray Follow-Up to a Globular Cluster Ultraluminous X-ray Source in NGC 4472. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstac3145

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