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Hauptverfasser: Zhou, Cong, Zhong, Binyu, Zeng, Yuhe, Huang, Lei, Pan, Zhen
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.06429
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author Zhou, Cong
Zhong, Binyu
Zeng, Yuhe
Huang, Lei
Pan, Zhen
author_facet Zhou, Cong
Zhong, Binyu
Zeng, Yuhe
Huang, Lei
Pan, Zhen
contents Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are intense repeating soft X-ray bursts with recurrence times about a few hours to a few weeks from galactic nuclei. Though the debates on the origin of QPEs have not completely settled down, more and more analyses favor the interpretation that QPEs are the result of collisions between a stellar mass object (a stellar mass black hole or a main sequence star) and an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. If this interpretation is correct, QPEs will be invaluable in probing the orbits of stellar mass objects in the vicinity of SMBHs, and further inferring the formation of extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), one of the major targets of spaceborne gravitational wave missions. In this work, we extended the EMRI orbital analysis in Paper I arXiv:2401.11190 to all the known QPE sources with more than $6$ flares observed. Among all the analyzed 5 QPE sources, two distinct EMRI populations are identified: 4 EMRIs are of low orbital eccentricity (consistent with 0) which should be born in the wet EMRI formation channel, and 1 mildly eccentric EMRI (with $e= 0.25^{+0.18}_{-0.20}$ at 2-$σ$ confidence level) is consistent with the predictions of both the dry loss-cone formation channel and the Hills mechanism.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_06429
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing orbits of stellar mass objects deep in galactic nuclei with quasi-periodic eruptions -- II: population analysis
Zhou, Cong
Zhong, Binyu
Zeng, Yuhe
Huang, Lei
Pan, Zhen
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are intense repeating soft X-ray bursts with recurrence times about a few hours to a few weeks from galactic nuclei. Though the debates on the origin of QPEs have not completely settled down, more and more analyses favor the interpretation that QPEs are the result of collisions between a stellar mass object (a stellar mass black hole or a main sequence star) and an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in galactic nuclei. If this interpretation is correct, QPEs will be invaluable in probing the orbits of stellar mass objects in the vicinity of SMBHs, and further inferring the formation of extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), one of the major targets of spaceborne gravitational wave missions. In this work, we extended the EMRI orbital analysis in Paper I arXiv:2401.11190 to all the known QPE sources with more than $6$ flares observed. Among all the analyzed 5 QPE sources, two distinct EMRI populations are identified: 4 EMRIs are of low orbital eccentricity (consistent with 0) which should be born in the wet EMRI formation channel, and 1 mildly eccentric EMRI (with $e= 0.25^{+0.18}_{-0.20}$ at 2-$σ$ confidence level) is consistent with the predictions of both the dry loss-cone formation channel and the Hills mechanism.
title Probing orbits of stellar mass objects deep in galactic nuclei with quasi-periodic eruptions -- II: population analysis
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.06429