HLX-1 may be an SS433 system

Abstract

We show that the hyperluminous source HLX--1 may be a stellar--mass binary system like SS433, but seen along its X--ray beams. The precession of these beams gives the $\sim 1$~yr characteristic timescale of the light curve, while the significant X--ray duty cycle means that the precession angle must be comparable with the beam opening angle, which is of order $1.6^{\circ }$. The X--ray light curve appears to result from geometric collimation and scattering as the beam moves through the line of sight. Encouragingly, the distance $\sim 95$~Mpc suggested for HLX--1 is only a few times larger than the minimum distance at which we can expect to view such a highly--beamed system along its axis. This picture allows a simple interpretation of HLX--1 as the most extreme known member of the ULX population.

accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (26)

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• Quasi--Periodic Eruptions from Galaxy Nuclei
• No magnetars in ULXs
• Can reverberation-measured quasars be used for cosmology?
• NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the extreme ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5907 ULX1: A Vanishing Act
• On the radio properties of the intermediate-mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1
• The observed vs total population of ULXs
• The slimming effect of advection on black-hole accretion flows
• Implications of the delayed 2013 outburst of the ESO 243-49 HLX-1
• Non-interacting black hole binaries with Gaia and LAMOST
• The universal "heartbeat" oscillations in black hole systems accross the mass-scale
• Outbursts of the intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1: a wind instability scenario
• X-ray Transients: Hyper- or Hypo-Luminous?
• The hyperluminous X-ray source candidate in IC 4320: another HLX bites the dust
• ESO 243-49 HLX-1: scaling of X-ray spectral properties and black hole mass determination
• Models of Ultra-Luminous X-ray transient sources
• Detection of Very Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the 2015 Outburst of V404 Cygni
• Simulations of the tidal interaction and mass transfer of a star in an eccentric orbit around an intermediate-mass black hole: the case of HLX-1
• Understanding the environment around the intermediate mass black hole candidate ESO 243-49 HLX-1
• X-ray outbursts of ESO 243-49 HLX-1: comparison with Galactic low-mass X-ray binary transients
• Detection of a Radio Bubble around the Ultraluminous X-ray Source Holmberg IX X-1
• Long-term X-ray Variability of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Geometrical beaming of stellar mass ULXs
• Spectral index-mass accretion rate correlation and evaluation of black hole masses in AGNs 3C~454.3 and M87
• Discovery of a second outbursting hyperluminous X-ray source
• Weighing the IMBH candidate CO-0.40-0.22* in the Galactic Centre