English

The ULX Source X-3 in NGC 4258: A Search for Its X-ray and Optical Properties

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2020-10-28 v1

Abstract

We present the results of a search for the nature of ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) X-3 in the nearby galaxy NGC 4258. We use archival data from {\it XMM-Newton}, {\it Chandra}, {\it NuSTAR} and {\it HST} observations. Total X-ray data analysed to find the model parameters of the system is indicative of a stellar mass black hole, \sim 10 M\sun_{\sun}, as the central compact object. Furthermore, analyses of the optical data from {\it HST} reveal two optical candidates with the 90 per cent confidence level of error radius of 0\farcs\farcs28. Assuming the optical emission is dominated by the donor star, both of these candidates are found to have spectral types that lie between B3-F1 with absolute magnitudes of MVM_{\rm V} \approx -6.4. Moreover, the age and mass estimates for the candidates are found to be of 10 and 18 Myr and of 13 and 20 M\sun_{\sun}, respectively.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2009.06417,
  title  = {The ULX Source X-3 in NGC 4258: A Search for Its X-ray and Optical Properties},
  author = {A. Akyuz and S. Avdan and S. Allak and N. Aksaker and İ. Akkaya Oralhan and Ş. Balman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.06417},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables