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    Outbursts of the intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1: a wind-instability scenario

    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Soria, Roberto
    Musaeva, A.
    Wu, K.
    Zampieri, L.
    Federle, S.
    Urquhart, Ryan
    van der Helm, E.
    Farrell, S.
    Date
    2017
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Soria, R. and Musaeva, A. and Wu, K. and Zampieri, L. and Federle, S. and Urquhart, R. and van der Helm, E. et al. 2017. Outbursts of the intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1: a wind-instability scenario. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 469 (1): pp. 886-905.
    Source Title
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    DOI
    10.1093/mnras/stx888
    ISSN
    0035-8711
    School
    Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (Physics)
    Remarks

    This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54899
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    We model the intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1, using the Hubble Space Telescope, XMM–Newton and Swift. We quantify the relative contributions of a bluer component, function of X-ray irradiation, and a redder component, constant and likely coming from an old stellar population. We estimate a black hole mass ≈(2+2−1)×104M⊙ , a spin parameter a/M ≈ 0.9 for moderately face-on view and a peak outburst luminosity ≈0.3 times the Eddington luminosity. We discuss the discrepancy between the characteristic sizes inferred from the short X-ray time-scale (R ∼ a few 1011 cm) and from the optical emitter ( Rcosθ−−−−√≈2.2×1013  cm). One possibility is that the optical emitter is a circumbinary disc; however, we disfavour this scenario because it would require a very small donor star. A more plausible scenario is that the disc is large but only the inner annuli are involved in the X-ray outburst. We propose that the recurrent outbursts are caused by an accretion-rate oscillation driven by wind instability in the inner disc. We argue that the system has a long-term-average accretion rate of a few per cent Eddington, just below the upper limit of the low/hard state; a wind-driven oscillation can trigger transitions to the high/soft state, with a recurrence period ∼1 yr (much longer than the binary period, which we estimate as ∼10 d). The oscillation that dominated the system in the last decade is now damped such that the accretion rate no longer reaches the level required to trigger a transition. Finally, we highlight similarities between disc winds in HLX-1 and in the Galactic black hole V404 Cyg.

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