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.
A NuSTAR Study of Quasiperiodic Oscillations from the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in M82
- Creators
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El Byad, Hamza1, 2
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Bachetti, Matteo1
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Columbu, Silvia2
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Rodriguez, Giuseppe2
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Pilia, Maura1
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Middleton, Matthew J.3
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Walton, Dominic J.4
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Brightman, Murray5
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Earnshaw, Hannah5
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Forster, Karl5
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Grefenstette, Brian5
- Fürst, Felix6
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Heida, Marianne7
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Imbrogno, Matteo8
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Lai, Eleonora Veronica1
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Maccarone, Thomas9
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1.
Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
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2.
University of Cagliari
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3.
University of Southampton
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4.
University of Hertfordshire
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5.
California Institute of Technology
- 6. ESA/ESAC, Spain
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7.
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
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8.
Astronomical Observatory of Rome
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9.
Texas Tech University
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank Phil Uttley for discussions on the spectral cleaning procedure. M.B. was supported in part by the Italian Research Center on High Performance Computing Big Data and Quantum Computing (ICSC), project funded by European Union—NextGenerationEU—and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)—Mission 4 Component 2 within the activities of Spoke 3 (Astrophysics and Cosmos Observations). D.J.W. acknowledges support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; grant code ST/Y001060/1).
Software References
astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018, 2022), Stingray (D. Huppenkothen et al. 2019), CIAO (A. Fruscione et al. 2006), Astroquery (A. Ginsburg et al. 2019).
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Additional details
- European Union
- NextGenerationEU -
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/Y001060/1
- Accepted
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2025-07-07
- Available
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2025-08-18Published
- Caltech groups
- NuSTAR, Space Radiation Laboratory, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
- Publication Status
- Published