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Observational limits on the X-ray emission from the bubble nebula surrounding Ho IX X-1

Sathyaprakash, R.; Roberts, T.P.; Siwek, M.

Observational limits on the X-ray emission from the bubble nebula surrounding Ho IX X-1 Thumbnail


Authors

R. Sathyaprakash

M. Siwek



Abstract

Optical and radio observations of shock-ionised bubble nebulae surrounding ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) suggest that they are powered by jets or super-critical outflows presumably launched from the ULX accretion disc. Recent simulations of these systems have shown that the shocked wind can emit thermal X-rays with estimated luminosities ≲ 1036 erg s−1. In this work, we investigated whether it is possible to detect and spatially resolve the X-ray emission from these systems using archival Chandra observations of the ULX Holmberg IX X-1. This source is an ideal target to study for two reasons: it is surrounded by an optical bubble nebula with a large spatial extent (∼ 400 pc) that can easily be resolved with Chandra. Further, it has a hard X-ray continuum that is easily distinguishable from the expected soft thermal emission from the nebula. However, a spectral and photometric analysis on stacked Chandra observations of the source reveals that there is no strong evidence for an X-ray bubble associated with it, to a limiting luminosity of ∼2 × 1036 erg s−1. The detection of such X-ray nebulae may be possible with future X-ray missions such as Athena, which would provide useful constraints on the kinematics of the outflow. Finally, our observations also emphasise that the nebular emission does not contribute significantly to the residuals in the X-ray spectrum of the source, which are more likely to be linked to processes localised to the ULX.

Citation

Sathyaprakash, R., Roberts, T., & Siwek, M. (2019). Observational limits on the X-ray emission from the bubble nebula surrounding Ho IX X-1. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 488(4), 4614-4622. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2022

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 10, 2019
Online Publication Date Jul 30, 2019
Publication Date Oct 1, 2019
Deposit Date Jul 16, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 488
Issue 4
Pages 4614-4622
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2022
Related Public URLs https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.06439.pdf

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in the Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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