QPE or QPO? -- Quasiperiodic Activity in Low-Mass Galaxy Nuclei

Abstract

Quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs) from low-mass galaxy centres may result from accretion from a white dwarf in a very eccentric orbit about the central massive black hole. Evolution under gravitational radiation losses reduces the separation and eccentricity. I note that below a critical eccentricity $e_{\mathrm{crit}}\simeq 0.97$, the accretion disc's viscous timescale at pericentre passage is probably longer than the orbital period $P$, and periodic eruptive behaviour is no longer possible. These QPE descendant systems (QPEDs) are then likely to produce quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) rather than eruptions, varying more smoothly over the orbital cycle, with duty cycles $\sim 1$. I identify 2XMM J123103.2+110648 ($P\simeq 3.9$~hr) and (more tentatively) RE J1034+396 ($P\simeq 1$~hr) as candidate systems of this type, and find agreement with their deduced eccentricities $e<e_{\mathrm{crit}}$. The absence of eruptions and the lower accretion luminosities resulting from the smaller gravitational radiation losses may make QPED systems harder to discover. Ultimately they must evolve to have viscous times much longer than the orbital period, and either remain steady, or possibly have infrequent but large outbursts. The latter systems would be massive analogues of the soft X-ray transients produced by low stellar-mass X-ray binaries.

accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (12)

• Accretion disc viscosity: how big is alpha?
• X-ray Quasi-Periodic Eruptions from two previously quiescent galaxies
• GSN 069 -- A Tidal Disruption Near-Miss
• X-ray Quasi-periodic Eruptions driven by Star-Disc Collisions : Application to GSN069 and Probing the Spin of Massive Black Holes
• Repeating tidal disruptions in GSN 069: Long-term evolution and constraints on quasi-periodic eruptions' models
• Disc tearing: implications for black hole accretion and AGN variability
• Quasi--Periodic Eruptions from Galaxy Nuclei
• Evidence of a tidal disruption event in GSN 069 from the abnormal carbon and nitrogen abundance ratio
• Milli-Hertz Gravitational Wave Background Produced by Quasi-Periodic Eruptions
• Variability In A Low-Mass AGN: Oscillation Or Eruption?
• Investigation of X-ray timing and spectral properties of ESO 243-49 HLX-1 with long-term Swift Monitoring
• Angular Momentum Transfer in QPEs from Galaxy Nuclei

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Alive and kicking: A new QPE phase in GSN 069 revealing a quiescent luminosity threshold for QPEs
• Gravitational Wave Astronomy With TianQin
• Repeating Nuclear Transients as Candidate Electromagnetic Counterparts of LISA Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals
• Why are Quasiperiodic Eruptions only Found in Low-Mass Galaxies?
• SN 2022jli: The ultraluminous birth of a low-mass X-ray binary