Supersoft and Quasisoft X-Ray Sources in the Globular Clusters of NGC 4472: Are they candidates for intermediate-mass black holes?

Details Supersoft and Quasisoft X-Ray Sources in the Globular Clusters of NGC 4472: Are they candidates for intermediate-mass black holes? Supersoft and Quasisoft X-Ray Sources in the Globular Clusters of NGC 4472: Are they candidates for intermediate-mass black holes?

2003-12-15

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312391v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5 pages, 1 figure, submitted to ApJL

Scientific paper

We report on possible associations between 6 globular clusters in the Virgo elliptical galaxy NGC 4472 (M49) and bright ($L_x > 10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$) very soft X-ray sources (VSSs). Two of the VSSs have broad-band spectral properties consistent with those of luminous supersoft X-ray sources (SSSs). The other VSSs are somewhat harder harder, possibly with values of kT between roughly 150 eV and 250 eV. These sources may be too hot to be explained by the white dwarf models so promising for SSSs; they are members of the newly-established class of quasisoft sources (QSSs). We examine white dwarf, neutron star, and black hole models for the VSSs. One of the SSSs is hot and bright enough to be a possible progenitor of a Type Ia supernova, while the most natural model for the other VSSs is one in which the accretors are intermediate-mass black holes. Whatever their physical natures, these sources are unlike any X-ray sources in Galactic globular clusters. No Galactic globular cluster houses a quasisoft source and only one, M3, contains a dim ($L_x \sim 10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$) transient SSS.

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