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Gravitational waves from remnants of ultraluminous X-ray sources

Clovis Hopman·Simon Portegies Zwart
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Abstract

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with X-ray luminosities larger than the Eddington luminosity of stellar mass objects may be powered by intermediate mass black holes (IBHs) of masses Mbh~10^3Msun. If IBHs form in young dense stellar clusters, they can be fed by Roche lobe overflow from a tidally captured massive (Ms>10Msun) stellar companion. After the donor leaves the main sequence it forms a compact remnant, which spirals in due to gravitational wave (GW) emission. We show that space based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna are likely to detect several of these sources. GW sources stemming from this scenario have small eccentricities which give distinct GW signals. Detection of such a GW signal will unambiguously prove the existence of IBHs, and support the hypothesis that some ULXs are powered by IBHs with captured companions.

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Clovis Hopman, Simon Portegies Zwart. 2005-10-13. Gravitational waves from remnants of ultraluminous X-ray sources. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2005.00083.x

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