Issue |
A&A
Volume 612, April 2018
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L12 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Letters to the Editor | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832864 | |
Published online | 10 May 2018 |
Letter to the Editor
Ultraluminous X-ray sources: new distance indicators?
1
N. Copernicus Astronomical Center,
Bartycka 18,
00-716
Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: agata@camk.edu.pl
2
Warsaw University of Technology,
Plac Politechniki 1,
00-661
Warszawa, Poland
3
Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw,
Al. Ujazdowskie 4,
00-478
Warszawa, Poland
Received:
20
February
2018
Accepted:
16
April
2018
Aims. In this paper we fit the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton data of three sources: NGC 7793 P13, NGC5907 ULX1, and Circinus ULX5.
Methods. Our single model contains emission from a non-spherical system: a neutron star plus an accretion disk directed towards the observer.
Results. We obtained a very good fit with the reduced χ2 per degree of freedom equal to 1.08 for P13, 1.01 for ULX1, and 1.14 for ULX5. The normalization of our model constrains the distance to the source. The resulting distances are D = 3.41−0.10+0.11, 6.55−0.81+0.69, and 2.60−0.03+0.05 Mpc for P13, ULX1, and ULX5 respectively. The distances to P13 and ULX5 are in perfect agreement with previous distance measurements to their host galaxies.
Conclusions. Our results confirm that P13, ULX1, and ULX5 may contain central hot neutron stars. When the outgoing emission is computed by integration over the emitting surface and successfully fitted to the data, then the resulting model normalization is the direct distance indicator.
Key words: accretion, accretion disks / stars: neutron / X-rays: general
© ESO 2018
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.