A NuSTAR Study of Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in M82
Abstract The study of quasiperiodic oscillations (QPOs) in X-ray binaries provides valuable insights into the physics of accretion around compact objects. The M82 galaxy hosts multiple ultraluminous X-ray sources, including two prominent ones—X-1 and X-2—where X-1 is suspected to harbor an intermediate-mass black hole. In this work, we analyze data from 39 NuSTAR observations acquired between 2014 and 2024 to investigate the aperiodic X-ray variability in M82. In particular, we study in detail the evolution of the QPOs from M82 X-1 in the range 20–300 mHz. We do not find additional timing features in the data, besides a frequently present broad noise component at lower frequencies. The QPO behaves similarly to other classes of low-frequency oscillations in accreting compact objects, both black holes and neutron stars.
Authors
- Murray Brightman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8147-2602)
- M. Pilia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7397-8091)
- M. Imbrogno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8688-9784)
- D. J. Walton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5819-3552)
- Thomas J. Maccarone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0976-4755)
- Silvia Columbu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5420-0719)
- F. Fuerst (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0388-0560)
- Karl Förster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5800-5531)
- Matthew Middleton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8183-2970)
- Eleonora Veronica Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6421-2198)
- Hannah P. Earnshaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5857-5622)
- Marianne Heida (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1082-7496)
- Brian W. Grefenstette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1984-2932)
- G. Rodríguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9054-8712)
- Matteo Bachetti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4576-9337)
- Hamza El Byad
Institutions
- Texas Tech University (US)
- University of Hertfordshire (GB)
- University of Cagliari (IT)
- Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT)
- European Space Astronomy Centre (ES)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (IT)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- National Institute for Astrophysics (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 2025-08-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aded8a
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.31
Funders
- European Commission
- Science and Technology Facilities Council