An 85-s X-ray quasi-periodicity after a stellar tidal disruption by a candidate intermediate-mass black hole

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Autori principali: Zhang, Wenjie, Shu, Xinwen, Sun, Luming, Shen, Rongfeng, Dou, Liming, Jiang, Ning, Wang, Tinggui
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhang, Wenjie
Shu, Xinwen
Sun, Luming
Shen, Rongfeng
Dou, Liming
Jiang, Ning
Wang, Tinggui
author_facet Zhang, Wenjie
Shu, Xinwen
Sun, Luming
Shen, Rongfeng
Dou, Liming
Jiang, Ning
Wang, Tinggui
contents It is still in dispute the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with a mass of ~10^3-10^5 solar masses (Msun), which are the missing link between stellar-mass black holes (5-50 Msun) and supermassive black holes (10^6-10^10 Msun). The bright flares from tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide a new and direct way to probe IMBHs. 3XMM J215022.4-055108 is a unique off-nuclear X-ray transient which can be best explained as the TDE by an IMBH in a massive star cluster, though its mass is not well determined. Here, we report the discovery of a transient X-ray quasi-periodicity signal from 3XMM J215022.4-055108 with a period of ~85 seconds (at a significance of >3.51sigma) and fractional root-mean-squared amplitude of ~10%. Furthermore, the signal is coherent with a quality factor ~16. The significance drops to >3.13sigma if considering all light curves with sufficient quality for QPO search. Combining with the results from X-ray continuum fittings, the detection of QPO allows for joint constraints on the black hole mass and dimensionless spin in the range [9.9*10^3-1.6*10^4 Msun]$ and [0.26-0.36], respectively. This result supports the presence of an IMBH in an off-nuclear massive star cluster and may open up the possibility of studying IMBHs through X-ray timing of TDEs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_01156
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An 85-s X-ray quasi-periodicity after a stellar tidal disruption by a candidate intermediate-mass black hole
Zhang, Wenjie
Shu, Xinwen
Sun, Luming
Shen, Rongfeng
Dou, Liming
Jiang, Ning
Wang, Tinggui
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
It is still in dispute the existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with a mass of ~10^3-10^5 solar masses (Msun), which are the missing link between stellar-mass black holes (5-50 Msun) and supermassive black holes (10^6-10^10 Msun). The bright flares from tidal disruption events (TDEs) provide a new and direct way to probe IMBHs. 3XMM J215022.4-055108 is a unique off-nuclear X-ray transient which can be best explained as the TDE by an IMBH in a massive star cluster, though its mass is not well determined. Here, we report the discovery of a transient X-ray quasi-periodicity signal from 3XMM J215022.4-055108 with a period of ~85 seconds (at a significance of >3.51sigma) and fractional root-mean-squared amplitude of ~10%. Furthermore, the signal is coherent with a quality factor ~16. The significance drops to >3.13sigma if considering all light curves with sufficient quality for QPO search. Combining with the results from X-ray continuum fittings, the detection of QPO allows for joint constraints on the black hole mass and dimensionless spin in the range [9.9*10^3-1.6*10^4 Msun]$ and [0.26-0.36], respectively. This result supports the presence of an IMBH in an off-nuclear massive star cluster and may open up the possibility of studying IMBHs through X-ray timing of TDEs.
title An 85-s X-ray quasi-periodicity after a stellar tidal disruption by a candidate intermediate-mass black hole
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01156