Tracing a Z-track in the M31 X-ray Binary RX J0042.6+4115

Abstract

Four XMM-Newton observations of the core of M31, spaced at 6 month intervals, show that the brightest point X-ray source, RX J0042.6+4115, has a 0.4-10 keV luminosity of ~5 10^38 erg/s, and exhibits significant variability in intensity and X-ray spectrum over a time scale of ~100 s including hard flares; such behaviour is only observed in Z-sources and transient blackhole binaries in our Galaxy. The lightcurves, X-ray spectra and hardness-intensity data from the four XMM-Newton observations all strongly suggest that it is a Z-source, bringing the total number of known Z-sources to nine.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in A&A, 6 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (18)

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• The deep XMM-Newton Survey of M 31
• XMM-Newton survey of M 31
• M31 Globular Cluster X-ray Sources: XMM-Newton and Chandra results
• Testing the Paradigm that Ultraluminous X-ray Sources as a Class Represent Accreting Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• Time variability of X-ray sources in the M 31 centre field
• X-ray source variability study of the M 31 central field using Chandra HRC-I
• On the artificial nature of aperiodic variability in XMM-Newton observations of M31 X-ray sources and the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 4559 ULX-7
• X-ray spectral evolution of the extragalactic Z-source, LMC X-2
• X-Ray Spectroscopy of Newly Identified ULXs Associated With M87's Globular Cluster Population
• 50 M31 black hole candidates identified by Chandra and XMM-Newton
• Identifying a black hole X-ray transient in M31 with XMM-Newton and Chandra
• Optical Counterparts of ULXs in NGC 1672
• A Potential Supernova Remnant/X-ray Binary Association in M31
• NuSTAR view of the central region of M 31
• Broadband Spectrum of the X-ray Binary M33 X-6 from NuSTAR and Swift-XRT Data: An Extragalactic Z-Source?
• XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the M31 globular cluster black hole candidate XB135: a heavyweight contender cut down to size