A 400 solar mass black hole in the Ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-1 accreting close to its Eddington limit

Abstract

M82 X-1, the brightest X-ray source in the galaxy M82, has been thought to be an intermediate-mass black hole (100 to 10,000 solar masses) because of its extremely high luminosity and variability characteristics, although some models suggest that its mass may be only about 20 solar masses. The previous mass estimates were based on scaling relations that use low-frequency characteristic timescales which have large intrinsic uncertainties. For stellar-mass black holes, we know that the high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (100-450 hertz) in the X-ray emission that occur in a 3:2 frequency ratio are stable and scale in frequency inversely with black hole mass with a reasonably small dispersion. The discovery of such stable oscillations thus potentially offers an alternative and less ambiguous means of mass determination for intermediate-mass black holes, but has hitherto not been realized. Here we report stable, twin-peak (3:2 frequency ratio) X-ray quasi-periodic oscillations from M82 X-1 at frequencies of 3.32$\pm$0.06 hertz and 5.07$\pm$0.06 hertz. Assuming that we can extrapolate the inverse-mass scaling that holds for stellar-mass black holes, we estimate the black hole mass of M82 X-1 to be 428$\pm$105 solar masses. In addition, we can estimate the mass using the relativistic precession model, from which we get a value of 415$\pm$63 solar masses.

arXiv commentPublished in Nature. Dynamic power spectrum can be found at http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dheeraj/img/movie1.webm

References in corpus (35)

• The formation of massive black holes through collision runaway in dense young star clusters
• Correlations in the QPO Frequencies of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries and the Relativistic Precession Model
• The ABC of low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations in Black-Hole Candidates: analogies with Z-sources
• Precise mass and spin measurements for a stellar-mass black hole through X-ray timing: the case of GRO J1655-40
• Discovery of a Luminous, Variable, Off-Center Source in the Nucleus of M82 with the Chandra HRC
• Evidence for Harmonic Relationships in the High Frequency QPOs of XTE J1550-564 and GRO J1655-40
• Characterizing the QPO Behavior of the X-ray Nova XTE J1550--564
• An Improved Dynamical Model for the Microquasar XTE J1550-564
• High-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in black-hole binaries
• Discovery of a Second High Frequency QPO from the Microquasar GRS 1915+105
• The quiescent light curve and evolutionary state of GRO J1655-40
• Challenging times: a re-analysis of NGC 5408 X-1
• Black Hole Mass of the Ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-1
• The not-so-massive black hole in the microquasar GRS1915+105
• Calibrating the correlation between black hole mass and X-ray variability amplitude: X-ray only black hole mass estimates for active galactic nuclei and ultra-luminous X-ray sources
• The importance of discovering a 3:2 twin-peak QPO in a ULX or how to solve the puzzle of intermediate mass black holes
• A variable Quasi-Periodic Ocillation in M82 X-1. Timing and spectral analysis of XMM-Newton and RossiXTE observations
• Identification of the X-Ray Thermal Dominant State in an Ultraluminous X-Ray Source in M82
• Long Term Behavior of X-ray Pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of mHz X-ray Oscillations in a Transient Ultraluminous X-ray Source in M82
• The ultra-luminous X-ray source in M82: an intermediate mass black hole with a giant companion
• An X-ray Timing Study of XTE J1550--564: Evolution of the Low Frequency QPO for the Complete 2000 Outburst
• Weighing the black holes in ultraluminous X-ray sources through timing
• Confirmation of the 62 Day X-Ray Periodicity from M82
• USA and RXTE Observations of a Variable Low-Frequency QPO in XTE J1118+480
• A Stellar-mass Black Hole in the Ultra-luminous X-ray Source M82 X-1?
• Post-Burst Quasi-Periodic Oscillations from GRO J1744-28 and from the Rapid Burster
• Interpreting black hole QPOs
• Quasi-Periodic Oscillations and energy spectra from the two brightest Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources in M82
• Can the 62 day X-ray period of the Ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-1 be due to a precessing accretion disk?
• The Long-term Variability of the X-ray Sources in M82
• On the association of ULXs with young superclusters: M82 X-1 and a new candidate in NGC 7479
• On the Nature of the mHz X-Ray Quasi-periodic Oscillations from Ultraluminous X-Ray Source M82 X-1: Search for Timing-Spectral Correlations
• Transition to the disk dominant state of a new ultraluminous X-ray source in M82
• Peak Luminosities of Bursts from GRO J1744-28 measured with the RXTE PCA

Cited by in corpus (141)

• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• Discovering the QCD Axion with Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
• Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources
• A review of quasi-periodic oscillations from black hole X-ray binaries: observation and theory
• Observational evidence for intermediate-mass black holes
• Resolved atomic lines reveal outflows in two ultraluminous X-ray sources
• Rates of Compact Object Coalescences
• A spectral-timing model for ULXs in the super-critical regime
• Ultraluminous X-ray sources
• Gravitational waves as a probe of dark matter mini-spikes
• The Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole: How good a case is it? A Challenge for Astrophysics & Philosophy of Science
• Gravitational Waves and Intermediate-mass Black Hole Retention in Globular Clusters
• A population of intermediate-mass black holes in dwarf starburst galaxies up to redshift=1.5
• Astrophysical Black Holes: A Compact Pedagogical Review
• Formation of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes through Runaway Collisions in the First Star Clusters
• Diagnosing the accretion flow in ultraluminous X-ray sources using soft X-ray atomic features
• Intermediate Mass Black Hole Formation in compact Young Massive Star Clusters
• The powerful jet of an off-nuclear intermediate-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 2276
• The Missing Link: Bayesian Detection and Measurement of Intermediate-Mass Black-Hole Binaries
• Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO
• A Multiwavelength Study of the Relativistic Tidal Disruption Candidate Sw J2058+05 at Late Times
• Detectability of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Multiband Gravitational Wave Astronomy
• Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• A Remarkably Loud Quasi-Periodicity after a Star is Disrupted by a Massive Black Hole
• Evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the globular cluster NGC 6624
• Gravitational floating orbits around hairy black holes
• Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network
• New class of compact stars: Pion stars
• Submillimeter-HCN Diagram for an Energy Diagnostics in the Centers of Galaxies
• An ultraluminous nascent millisecond pulsar
• The Close Stellar Companions to Intermediate Mass Black Holes
• High-Frequency and Type-C QPOs from Oscillating, Precessing Hot, Thick Flow
• Dark Stars: A Review
• Detection of a possible X-ray Quasi-periodic Oscillation in the Active Galactic Nucleus 1H~0707-495
• Multi-mode black hole spectroscopy
• Spectral and temporal properties of the ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar in M82 from 15 years of Chandra observations and analysis of the pulsed emission using NuSTAR
• Binary radial velocity measurements with space-based gravitational-wave detectors
• Long-term X-ray spectral evolution of Ultraluminous X-ray sources: implications on the accretion flow geometry and the nature of the accretor
• The astrophysical science case for a decihertz gravitational-wave detector
• NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Suzaku Observations of the Ultraluminous X-ray Source Holmberg II X-1
• Keck/MOSFIRE spectroscopy of five ULX counterparts
• Inference on gravitational waves from coalescences of stellar-mass compact objects and intermediate-mass black holes
• Surrogate model for gravitational wave signals from non-spinning, comparable- to large-mass-ratio black hole binaries built on black hole perturbation theory waveforms calibrated to numerical relativity
• Confrontation of Observation and Theory: High Frequency QPOs in X-ray Binaries, Tidal Disruption Events, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Measuring intermediate mass black hole binaries with advanced gravitational wave detectors
• The Formation of Supermassive Black Holes from Population III.1 Seeds. I. Cosmic Formation Histories and Clustering Properties
• Mass of intermediate black hole in the source M82 X-1 restricted by models of twin high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations
• Nature of the soft ULX in NGC 247: super-Eddington outflow and transition between the supersoft and soft ultraluminous regimes
• Improvements to the construction of binary black hole initial data
• Discovery of a red supergiant counterpart to RX~J004722.4-252051, a ULX in NGC 253
• Universal scaling of the 3:2 twin-peak quasi-periodic oscillation frequencies with black hole mass and spin revisited
• The Lense-Thirring timing-accretion plane for ULXs
• Revisiting the ultraluminous supersoft source in M101: an optically thick outflow model
• $N-$body dynamics of Intermediate mass-ratio inspirals in globular clusters
• Nature of the Extreme Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Ultra-high-energy-cosmic-ray hot spots from tidal disruption events
• Evidence for an Optical Low-frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillation in the Kepler Light Curve of an Active Galaxy
• The extended radio jet of an off-nuclear low-mass AGN in NGC 5252
• Evidence for High-Frequency QPOs with a 3:2 Frequency Ratio from a 5000 Solar Mass Black Hole
• A broadband X-ray spectral study of the intermediate-mass black hole candidate M82 X-1 with NuSTAR, Chandra and Swift
• Timescale of twin-peak quasi-periodic oscillations and mass of accreting neutron stars
• The influence of accretion disk thickness on the large-scale magnetic dynamo
• Relativistic Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton Accretion onto a Rotating Black-Hole: Density Gradients
• Estimating parameters of binary black holes from gravitational-wave observations of their inspiral, merger and ringdown
• Expected intermediate mass black holes in the Virgo cluster. II. Late-type galaxies
• Searching for intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters with gravitational microlensing
• Testing wind as an explanation for the spin problem in the continuum-fitting method
• Does the intermediate mass black hole in LEDA 87300 (RGG 118) follow the near-quadratic (M_bh)-(M_spheroid) relation?
• The hyperluminous X-ray source candidate in IC 4320: another HLX bites the dust
• NGC5252: a pair of radio-emitting active galactic nuclei?
• Discovery of the Candidate Off-nuclear Ultrasoft Hyper-luminous X-ray Source 3XMM J141711.1+522541
• Ultraluminous X-ray sources: three exciting years
• Discovery of a Quasi-Periodic Oscillation in the Ultraluminous X-ray Source IC 342 X-1: XMM-Newton Results
• Testing No-Hair Theorem by Quasi-Periodic Oscillations: the quadrupole of GRO J1655$-$40
• The BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey -- XVIII. Searching for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in the X-rays
• Limits on Runaway Growth of Intermediate Mass Black Holes from Advanced LIGO
• Spectral variability in Swift and Chandra observations of the Ultraluminous source NGC 55 ULX1
• Black Holes and Neutron Stars in Nearby Galaxies: Insights from NuSTAR
• A Possible 55-day X-ray Period of the Ultraluminous Accreting Pulsar M82 X-2
• A Population of Neutron Star Ultraluminous X-ray Sources with A Helium Star Companion
• Testing the Kerr nature of intermediate-mass and supermassive black hole binaries using spin-induced multipole moment measurements
• A 6.4yr optical quasi-periodic oscillations in SDSS J075217.84+193542.2: a new candidate for central binary black hole system
• The ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5643 ULX1: a large stellar mass black hole accreting at super-Eddington rates?
• Spectral evolution of the ultraluminous X-ray sources M82 X-1 and X-2
• GW190521 formation scenarios via relativistic accretion
• Temporal evolution of long-timescale periodicities in ULX NGC 5408 X-1
• The Magnetic Field Evolution of ULX NuSTAR J095551+6940.8 in M82--A Legacy of Accreting Magnetar
• Independent Black Hole Mass Estimation for the γ-ray Detected Archetypal Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy 1H 0323+342 from X-ray Variability
• No WIMP Mini-Spikes in Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• A 3.8yr optical quasi-periodic oscillations in blue quasar SDSS J132144+033055 through combined light curves from CSS and ZTF
• Survey of gravitational wave memory in intermediate mass ratio binaries
• Accreting Black Holes
• Discovery of a second outbursting hyperluminous X-ray source
• Mass of the active galactic nucleus black hole XMMUJ134736.6+173403
• Cosmic background radiation in the vicinity of a Schwarzschild black hole: no classic firewall
• A universal scaling law of black hole activity including gamma-ray bursts
• A geometric origin for quasi-periodic oscillations in black hole X-ray binaries
• Gravitational wave radiation from periodic orbits and quasi-periodic oscillations in Einstein non-linear Maxwell-Yukawa black hole
• Two Optical Counterpart Candidates of M82-X1 from HST Observations
• Premerger localization of intermediate mass binary black holes with LISA and prospects of joint observations with Athena and LSST
• Does the 62-day X-ray periodicity come from ULX M82 X-1?
• Correlations between the frequencies of twin kHz QPOs and spins of neutron stars in LMXBs
• Early formation of supermassive black holes from the collapse of strongly self-interacting dark matter
• On the Physical Nature of the Source of Ultraluminous X-ray Pulsations
• Spectral Evolution of Ultraluminous X-ray Pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1
• X-ray properties of two transient ULX candidates in galaxy NGC 7090
• Study of accretion flows around an ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-1 using NuSTAR data
• Improving parameter estimation accuracy with torsion-bar antennas
• The Great Pretenders Among the ULX Class
• Probing the nature of Einstein nonlinear Maxwell Yukawa black hole through gravitational wave forms from periodic orbits and quasiperiodic oscillations
• Identification of Intermediate-mass Black Hole Candidates Among a Sample of Sd Galaxies
• X-raying the Birth of Binary Neutron Stars and Neutron Star-Black Hole Binaries
• Digging a little deeper: characterising three new extreme ULX candidates
• X-ray reverberation models of the disc wind in ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5408 X-1
• A likely Micro-quasar in the Shadow of M82 X-1
• Inertial-Acoustic Oscillations of Black-Hole Accretion Discs with Large-Scale Poloidal Magnetic Fields
• A NuSTAR study of quasi-periodic oscillations from the ultraluminous X-ray sources in M82
• Nature of donors in ultra-luminous X-ray binaries powered by neutron stars
• Feedback from intermediate mass black holes on dwarf galaxy morphology at z=2
• A new Bowen Fluorescence Flare and Extreme Coronal Line Emitter discovered by SRG/eROSITA
• Constraining Cubic Curvature Corrections to General Relativity with Quasi-Periodic Oscillations
• Testing loop quantum gravity by quasi-periodic oscillations: rotating blackholes
• Astrophysical Evidence of Wakefield Acceleration in Galactic and Extragalactic Jets via Gamma Rays and UHECRs
• Gravitational wave inference of star cluster properties from intermediate-mass black hole mergers
• Black Hole Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the Presence of Gauss-Bonnet Trace Anomaly
• Investigating the dark matter minispikes with the gamma-ray signal from the halo of M31
• Timing of accreting neutron stars with future X-ray instruments: towards new constraints on dense matter equation of state
• Searching for X-ray sources in nearby late-type galaxies with low star formation rates
• Estimating the black hole mass of NGC1313 X-1 based on the spectral and timing properties
• FROST-CLUSTERS -- III. Metallicity-dependent intermediate mass black hole formation by runaway collisions in dense star clusters
• Prospects for joint multiband detection of intermediate-mass black holes by LGWA and the Einstein Telescope
• Detectability of compact intermediate-mass black hole binaries as low-frequency gravitational wave sources: the influence of dynamical friction of dark matter
• First Search for an X-ray -- Optical Reverberation Signal in an Ultraluminous X-ray Source
• Eccentric equatorial trajectories around a Kerr black hole as a QPO model for M82X-1
• Spectral and Temporal Properties of Ultra-luminous X-ray Source NGC 55 ULX1
• On the origin of core radio emissions from black hole sources in the realm of relativistic shocked accretion flow
• A Multi-Mission Catalogue of Ultraluminous X-ray Source Candidates
• Probing extreme black-hole outflows on short timescales via high spectral-resolution X-ray imagers
• Black holes
• An expanded ultraluminous X-ray source catalogue
• X-ray Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Active Galactic Nuclei and Their Implications for the Changing Look Phenomenon