Toward the dynamical masses for ultraluminous X-ray sources
Jifeng Liu (Harvard Smithsonian CfA)
ULXs are believed to be either intermediate mass black holes of a few thousand solar masses as suggested by their apparently super-Eddington X-ray luminosities and some X-ray timing and spectral propoertes, or stellar mass black holes with special radiation mechanisms. We have been committed to measuring the dynamical masses of these sources. So far, we have identified 20+ of them in the optical, and have detected the period for one optical counterpart. We are proposing spectroscopy monitoring to get its radial velocity amplitude, the last piece to compute its mass function. I will also talk about our efforts to model ULXs as X-ray irradiated binaries with the secondaries filling their Roche lobes.
Host: Luis Ho.
Jifeng Liu (Harvard Smithsonian CfA)
ULXs are believed to be either intermediate mass black holes of a few thousand solar masses as suggested by their apparently super-Eddington X-ray luminosities and some X-ray timing and spectral propoertes, or stellar mass black holes with special radiation mechanisms. We have been committed to measuring the dynamical masses of these sources. So far, we have identified 20+ of them in the optical, and have detected the period for one optical counterpart. We are proposing spectroscopy monitoring to get its radial velocity amplitude, the last piece to compute its mass function. I will also talk about our efforts to model ULXs as X-ray irradiated binaries with the secondaries filling their Roche lobes.
Host: Luis Ho.