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Bright radio emission from an ultraluminous stellar-mass microquasar in M 31

Nature volume 493, pages 187–190 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

A subset of ultraluminous X-ray sources (those with luminosities of less than 1040 erg s−1; ref. 1) are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto black holes with masses of ∼5–20, probably by means of an accretion disk2,3. The X-ray and radio emission are coupled in such Galactic sources; the radio emission originates in a relativistic jet thought to be launched from the innermost regions near the black hole4,5, with the most powerful emission occurring when the rate of infalling matter approaches a theoretical maximum (the Eddington limit). Only four such maximal sources are known in the Milky Way6, and the absorption of soft X-rays in the interstellar medium hinders the determination of the causal sequence of events that leads to the ejection of the jet. Here we report radio and X-ray observations of a bright new X-ray source in the nearby galaxy M 31, whose peak luminosity exceeded 1039 erg s−1. The radio luminosity is extremely high and shows variability on a timescale of tens of minutes, arguing that the source is highly compact and powered by accretion close to the Eddington limit onto a black hole of stellar mass. Continued radio and X-ray monitoring of such sources should reveal the causal relationship between the accretion flow and the powerful jet emission.

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Figure 1: Evolution of the X-ray luminosity and spectrum over time.
Figure 2: Summary of the radio observations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Trott and R. Soria for discussions, and C. Gough for making his code available. This work was supported by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) standard grant (M.J.M.), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Vidi Fellowship (S.M.), European Research Council partial funding (R.F.) and grant number BMWI/DLR, FKZ 50 OR 1010 (M. Henze). The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. We thank the staff of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory for their assistance in the commissioning and operation of AMI, which is supported by Cambridge University and the STFC. This work is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. This research has also made use of data obtained from NASA’s Swift and Chandra satellites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK,

    Matthew J. Middleton, Timothy P. Roberts, Jonathan Harris, Michael Daniel, Junayd Miah & Chris Done

  2. Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands,

    Matthew J. Middleton & Sera Markoff

  3. International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia,

    James C. A. Miller-Jones, Natasha Hurley-Walker, Jean-Pierre Macquart & John S. Morgan

  4. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK,

    Rob Fender, Anna M. M. Scaife & Phil Charles

  5. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany,

    Martin Henze, Wolfgang Pietsch, Frank Haberl, Vadim Burwitz, Michael Freyberg, Jochen Greiner & Arne Rau

  6. Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK,

    Dominic Walton

  7. Astronomy Department, California Institute of Technology, MC 249-17, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, USA,

    Dominic Walton & John Carpenter

  8. ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia,

    Jean-Pierre Macquart

  9. Astronomy Department, B-20 Hearst Field, Annex no. 3411, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-3411, California, USA

    Geoffrey C. Bower

  10. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Mark Gurwell

  11. Stockholm University, Oskar Klein Centre, AlbaNova, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden,

    Hugh Dickinson

  12. Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, Republic of South Africa,

    Phil Charles

  13. Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, INAF, Salita Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy,

    Massimo Della Valle

  14. International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics, Piazzale della Repubblica 2, 65122 Pescara, Italy,

    Massimo Della Valle

  15. Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Campus UAB, Facultade de Ciències, Torre C5 parell 2, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain,

    Margarita Hernanz

  16. Physics and Astronomy Department, 118 Kinard Laboratory, Clemson University, Clemson, 29631-0978, South Carolina, USA

    Dieter H. Hartmann

  17. Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 157 84 Zografou, Athens, Greece,

    Despina Hatzidimitriou

  18. University Observatory Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679 München, Germany,

    Arno Riffeser & Stella Seitz

  19. Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, EUETIB (UPC-IEEC), calle Comte d’Urgell 187, 08036 Barcelona, Spain,

    Gloria Sala

  20. Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Νikolaou Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton, 71110 Heraklion, Crete, Greece,

    Pablo Reig

  21. Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy,

    Marina Orio

  22. Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK,

    David Titterington & Keith Grainge

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Contributions

M.J.M. wrote the manuscript with comments from all authors. J.C.A.M.-J. designed and analysed the VLA and VLBA observations. N.H.-W. and A.M.M.S. analysed the AMI-LA observations. J.-P.M. and J.C.A.M.-J. conducted the scintillation analysis. S.M., R.F. and M. Henze made significant contributions to the overall science case and manuscript. J.C., G.C.B. and M.G. provided support and analysis for the CARMA observations. The remaining authors either assisted with various aspects of the science case or are contributing members of the M 31 group.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew J. Middleton.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Middleton, M., Miller-Jones, J., Markoff, S. et al. Bright radio emission from an ultraluminous stellar-mass microquasar in M 31. Nature 493, 187–190 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11697

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