Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 777, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/777/1/69
Keywords
black hole physics; globular clusters: individual (M62); radio continuum: general; X-rays: general
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council [DP120102393]
- NSERC
- Ingenuity New Faculty Award
- NSF [AST-1308124]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1308124] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We report the discovery of a candidate stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way globular cluster M62. We detected the black hole candidate, which we call M62-VLA1, in the core of the cluster using deep radio continuum imaging from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. M62-VLA1 is a faint source with a flux density of 18.7 +/- 1.9 mu Jy at 6.2 GHz and a flat radio spectrum (alpha = -0.24 +/- 0.42, for S-nu = nu(alpha)). M62 is the second Milky Way cluster with a candidate stellar-mass black hole; unlike the two candidate black holes previously found in the cluster M22, M62-VLA1 is associated with a Chandra X-ray source, supporting its identification as a black hole X-ray binary. Measurements of its radio and X-ray luminosity, while not simultaneous, place M62-VLA1 squarely on the well-established radio-X-ray correlation for stellar-mass black holes. In archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging, M62-VLA1 is coincident with a star near the lower red giant branch. This possible optical counterpart shows a blue excess, H alpha emission, and optical variability. The radio, X-ray, and optical properties of M62-VLA1 are very similar to those for V404 Cyg, one of the best-studied quiescent stellar-mass black holes. We cannot yet rule out alternative scenarios for the radio source, such as a flaring neutron star or background galaxy; future observations are necessary to determine whether M62-VLA1 is indeed an accreting stellar-mass black hole.
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