Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-04-21
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted by MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13372.x
We describe a new method to estimate the mass of black holes in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs). The method is based on the recently discovered ``variability plane'', populated by Galactic stellar-mass black-hole candidates (BHCs) and supermassive active galactic nuclei (AGNs), in the parameter space defined by the black-hole mass, accretion rate and characteristic frequency. We apply this method to the two ULXs from which low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations have been discovered, M82 X-1 and NGC 5408 X-1. For both sources we obtain a black-hole mass in the range 100~1300 Msun, thus providing evidence for these two sources to host an intermediate-mass black hole.
Belloni Tomaso
Casella Piergiorgio
Miniutti Giovanni
Patruno Alessandro
Ponti Gabriele
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