A NuSTAR Study of Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in M82
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.
Item Type | Article |
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Additional information | © 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords | ultraluminous x-ray sources, x-ray astronomy, accretion, x-ray binary stars, compact objects, time domain astronomy |
Date Deposited | 20 Aug 2025 16:11 |
Last Modified | 20 Aug 2025 16:13 |