A NuSTAR Study of Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in M82
El Byad, Hamza Bachetti, Matteo Columbu, Silvia Rodriguez, Giuseppe Pilia, Maura Heida, Marianne et al.
El Byad, Hamza
Bachetti, Matteo
Columbu, Silvia
Rodriguez, Giuseppe
Pilia, Maura
Heida, Marianne
et al.
Series / Report no.
Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date
2025-08-18
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Title
A NuSTAR Study of Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in M82
Translated Title
Published in
Astrophys J 2025; 989(2):202
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.