Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 362, Issue 1, Pages 79-88Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09223.x
Keywords
accretion; accretion discs; black hole physics; X-rays : galaxies; X-rays : stars
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We have constructed a model to describe the optical emission from ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). We assume a binary model with a black hole accreting matter from a Roche lobe filling companion star. We consider the effects of radiative transport and radiative equilibrium in the irradiated surfaces of both the star and a thin accretion disc. We have developed this model as a tool with which to positively identify the optical counterparts of ULXs, and subsequently derive parameters such as the black hole mass and the luminosity class and spectral type of the counterpart. We examine the dependence of the optical emission on these and other variables. We extend our model to examine the magnitude variation at infrared wavelengths, and we find that observations at these wavelengths may have more diagnostic power than in the optical. We apply our model to existing HST observations of the candidates for the optical counterpart of ULX X-7 in NGC 4559. All candidates could be consistent with an irradiated star alone, but we find that a number of them are too faint to fit with an irradiated star and disc together. Were one of these the optical counterpart to X-7, it would display a significant temporal variation.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available