CXOM31 J004253.1+411422: The first ultra-luminous X-ray transient in M 31

Abstract

We seek clarification of the nature of X-ray sources detected in M 31. Here we focus on CXOM31 J004253.1+411422, the brightness of which suggests that it belongs to the class of ultraluminous X-ray sources. We determine the X-ray properties of sources detected in the XMM-Newton Chandra monitoring program. We investigate spectral properties and search for periodic or quasi-periodic oscillations. A multi-component model is applied to the spectra obtained from XMM-Newton data to evaluate the relative contributions from thermal and non-thermal emission. The time dependence of this ratio is evaluated over a period of forty days. We simultaneously fit data from XMM-Newton EPIC-pn, MOS1 and MOS2 detectors with (non-thermal) powerlaw and (thermal) multicolored blackbody. The X-ray spectrum is best fit by the combination of a thermal component with kT ~ 1 keV and a powerlaw component with photon index approximately 2.6. From combined analysis of Chandra, Swift and XMM-Newton data, the unabsorbed total luminosity of this source decreases from ~ 3.8 x 10^{39} erg s^{-1} in the first observation to ~ 0.5 x 10^{39} ergs s^{-1} over a period of three months. The decay closely follows an exponential decline with a time constant of 32 days. The source spectrum evolves significantly, exhibiting a faster decline of the thermal component. We do not find evidence of any significant temporal features in the power density spectrum. The presence of a thermal component at kT ~ 1 keV in conjunction with a non-thermal high energy tail, is also consistent with spectral properties of other ULXs in the "high state". Our analysis indicates that the underlying source of this first ULX in M~31 is a black hole of mass, M > 13 M_{sun}, accreting near the Eddington limit, that underwent a transient outburst followed by an exponential decay reminiscent of transients associated with galactic X-ray novae.

arXiv commentAccepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics. 6 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• The ultraluminous state revisited: fractional variability and spectral shape as diagnostics of super-Eddington accretion
• A spectral-timing model for ULXs in the super-critical regime
• X-ray outbursts of low-mass X-ray binary transients observed in the RXTE era
• The Birth of an Ultra-Luminous X-ray Source in M83
• X-ray source variability study of the M 31 central field using Chandra HRC-I
• The effect of advection at luminosities close to Eddington: The ULX in M31
• Around 200 new X-ray binary IDs from 13 years of Chandra observations of the M31 center
• 50 M31 black hole candidates identified by Chandra and XMM-Newton
• Crossing the Eddington limit: examining disk spectra at high accretion rates
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• The fading of two transient ULXs to below the stellar mass Eddington limit
• Dense gas tracing the collisional past of Andromeda. An atypical inner region?
• A Transient Sub-Eddington Black Hole X-ray Binary Candidate in the Dust Lanes of Centaurus A
• X-ray properties of two transient ULX candidates in galaxy NGC 7090
• Transient X-ray source population in the Magellanic-type galaxy NGC 55
• A search for periodicities from a ULX in the LINER galaxy NGC 4736
• The hunt for new pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources: a clustering approach
• Long-Term X-Ray/UV Variability in ULXs
• Recurrent outbursts revealed in 3XMM J031820.8-663034
• Time Domain Astronomy with the THESEUS Satellite