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Identification of Bubble Nebulae around NGC 55 ULX-1 with MUSE Observations

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2023-08-24 v2

Abstract

Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the Very Large Telescope, we identified three bubble nebulae (denoted as A, B, and C) around an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 55. Bubble A shows a regular elliptical shape surrounding the ULX, with a morphology similar to the canonical ULX bubble around NGC 1313 X-2. It is most likely inflated by the ULX disk wind with a mechanical power close to 103910^{39} erg s1^{-1}. Bubble B lies 11\arcsec\ away from the ULX on the sky plane and is not contiguous to Bubble A. It displays a bow shock like morphology, and is likely driven by a collimated dark jet from the ULX with a mechanical power of about 3×10383 \times 10^{38} erg s1^{-1}. If this scenario is correct, we predict that Bubble B should present radio emission with a flux of about 11021 - 10^2 μ\muJy at 5 GHz. Bubble C appears within Bubble A, with a velocity and velocity dispersion distinct from the rest of Bubble A. Its nature is unclear and could be part of Bubble A as a result of low local density. The optical counterpart of ULX-1 exhibits a broad Hα\alpha, consistent with emission from a hot disk wind.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.06810,
  title  = {Identification of Bubble Nebulae around NGC 55 ULX-1 with MUSE Observations},
  author = {Changxing Zhou and Hua Feng and Fuyan Bian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.06810},
  year   = {2023}
}

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ApJ to appear