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Prog. Theor. Phys. Supplement No.155 (2004) pp. 365-366

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Radio Observations of Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources

— Microblazars or Intermediate-Mass Black Holes? —

Elmar Körding,1 Edward Colbert2 and Heino Falcke1,3

1Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Huegel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
2John Hopkins University, Maryland, USA
3Radio Observatory, ASTRON, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

Abstract:

In recent years Ultra-Luminous X-Ray sources (ULXs) received wide attention, however, their true nature is not yet understood. Many explanations have been suggested, including intermediate-mass black holes, super-Eddington accretion flows, anisotropic emission, and relativistic beaming of microquasars. We model the logN-logS distribution of ULXs assuming that each neutron star or black hole XRB can be described by an accretion disk plus jet model, where the jet is relativistically beamed. The distribution can be either fit by intermediate-mass black holes or by stellar mass black holes with mildly relativistic jets. Even though the jet is intrinsically weaker than the accretion disk, relativistic beaming can in the latter approach lead to the high fluxes observed. To further explore the possibility of microblazars contributing to the ULX phenomenon, we have embarked on a radio-monitoring study of ULXs in nearby galaxies with the VLA. However, up to now no radio flare has been detected. Using the radio/X-ray correlation the upper limits on the radio flux can be converted into upper limits for the black hole masses of M BH \lesssim103 M.


URL : http://ptp.ipap.jp/link?PTPS/155/365/
DOI : 10.1143/PTPS.155.365

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