A Systematic Search for Near-Infrared Counterparts of Nearby Ultraluminous X-ray sources (II)

López, K.M.; Heida, M.; Jonker, P.G.; Torres, M.A.P.; Roberts, T.P.; Walton, D.J.; Moon, D.-S.; Harrison, F.A.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stx857

A Systematic Search for Near-Infrared Counterparts of Nearby Ultraluminous X-ray sources (II)

López, K.M.; Heida, M.; Jonker, P.G.; Torres, M.A.P.; Roberts, T.P.; Walton, D.J.; Moon, D.-S.; Harrison, F.A.

Authors

K.M. López

M. Heida

P.G. Jonker

M.A.P. Torres

Professor Tim Roberts t.p.roberts@durham.ac.uk
Professor

D.J. Walton

D.-S. Moon

F.A. Harrison

Abstract

We present the results of our continued systematic search for near-infrared (NIR) candidate counterparts to ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) within 10 Mpc. We observed 42 ULXs in 24 nearby galaxies and detected NIR candidate counterparts to 15 ULXs. Fourteen of these ULXs appear to have a single candidate counterpart in our images and the remaining ULX has 2 candidate counterparts. Seven ULXs have candidate counterparts with absolute magnitudes in the range between -9.26 and -11.18 mag, consistent with them being red supergiants (RSGs). The other eight ULXs have candidate counterparts with absolute magnitudes too bright to be a single stellar source. Some of these NIR sources show extended morphology or colours expected for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), strongly suggesting that they are likely stellar clusters or background galaxies. The red supergiant candidate counterparts form a valuable sample for follow-up spectroscopic observations to confirm their nature, with the ultimate goal of directly measuring the mass of the compact accretor that powers the ULX using binary Doppler shifts.

Citation

López, K., Heida, M., Jonker, P., Torres, M., Roberts, T., Walton, D., …Harrison, F. (2017). A Systematic Search for Near-Infrared Counterparts of Nearby Ultraluminous X-ray sources (II). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 469(1), 671-682. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx857

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 4, 2017
Online Publication Date	Apr 6, 2017
Publication Date	Jul 21, 2017
Deposit Date	Apr 7, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Apr 18, 2017
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	469
Issue	1
Pages	671-682
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx857
Related Public URLs	https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.01068

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Copyright Statement
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.