Black Holes and Neutron Stars in Nearby Galaxies: Insights from NuSTAR

TL;DR

This study uses NuSTAR data to classify X-ray binaries in nearby galaxies by their compact objects, revealing the distribution and properties of neutron stars and black holes across different galaxy types.

Contribution

It introduces a method to classify extragalactic XRBs by their compact object type using NuSTAR color diagrams and analyzes their luminosity functions and population ratios.

Findings

128 sources detected with NuSTAR in 12 galaxies.

Black hole to neutron star ratio is approximately 2 in 12-25 keV band.

Abstract

Nearby galaxy surveys have long classified X-ray binaries (XRBs) by the mass category of their donor stars (high-mass and low-mass). The NuSTAR observatory, which provides imaging data at E $>10$ keV, has enabled the classification of extragalactic XRBs by their compact object type: neutron star (NS) or black hole (BH). We analyzed NuSTAR/Chandra/XMM-Newton observations from a NuSTAR-selected sample of 12 galaxies within 5 Mpc having stellar masses ($M_{\star}$) $10^{7-11}$ $M_{\odot}$ and star formation rates (SFR) $\approx0.01-15$ $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. We detect 128 NuSTAR sources to a sensitivity of $\approx10^{38}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Using NuSTAR color-intensity and color-color diagrams we classify 43 of these sources as candidate NS and 47 as candidate BH. We further subdivide BH by accretion states (soft, intermediate, and hard) and NS by weak (Z/Atoll) and strong (accreting pulsar) magnetic field. Using 8 normal (Milky Way-type) galaxies in the sample, we confirm the relation between SFR and galaxy X-ray point source luminosity in the 4-25 and 12-25 keV energy bands. We also constrain galaxy X-ray point source luminosity using the relation $L_{\rm{X}}=\alpha M_{\star}+\beta\text{SFR}$, finding agreement with previous work. The XLF of all sources in the 4-25 and 12-25 keV energy bands matches with the $\alpha=1.6$ slope for high-mass XRBs. We find that NS XLFs suggest a decline beginning at the Eddington limit for a 1.4 $M_{\odot}$ NS, whereas the BH fraction shows an approximate monotonic increase in the 4-25 and 12-25keV energy bands. We calculate the overall ratio of BH to NS to be $\approx1$ for 4-25 keV and $\approx2$ for 12-25 keV.