VELOCITY STRUCTURE AND VARIABILITY OF [O III] EMISSION IN BLACK HOLE HOST GLOBULAR CLUSTER RZ2109

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/739/2/95; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21587466

Steele, Matthew M; Zepf, Stephen E; Kundu, Arunav ^[1]; Maccarone, Thomas J ^[2]; Rhode, Katherine L

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 (United States)
2. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire S017 1BJ (United Kingdom)

We present a multi-facility study of the optical spectrum of the extragalactic globular cluster RZ2109, which hosts a bright black hole X-ray source. The optical spectrum of RZ2109 shows strong and very broad [O III] {lambda}{lambda}4959, 5007 emission in addition to the stellar absorption lines typical of a globular cluster. We use observations over an extended period of time to constrain the variability of these [O III] emission lines. We find that the equivalent width of the lines is similar in all of the data sets; the change in L[O III] {lambda}5007 is {approx}<10% between the first and last observations, which were separated by 467 days. The velocity profile of the line also shows no significant variability over this interval. Using a simple geometric model, we demonstrate that the observed [O III] {lambda}5007 line velocity structure can be described by a two-component model with most of the flux contributed by a bipolar conical outflow of about 1600 km s{sup -1}, and the remainder from a Gaussian component with an FWHM of several hundred km s{sup -1}.

• OSTI ID: 21587466
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 739; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
EMISSION
GALAXIES
STAR CLUSTERS
VELOCITY
X-RAY GALAXIES