Long-term X-ray and Optical Monitoring of RZ2109
Tuesday, 28 February 2017 8 a.m. — 9 a.m. MST
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AURA Lecture Hall
We present the results of long-term monitoring of the X-ray and optical emission from the black hole in the extragalactic globular cluster RZ2109. The ultimate goal of this work is to determine the origin and nature of this accreting globular cluster black hole. We include analysis of three years of new Chandra X-ray data and Gemini and SOAR optical spectroscopy, along with archival X-ray and optical data. Previous work has shown that RZ2109 hosts a bright (L_X ~4*10^39 ergs/s) and moderately variable X-ray source, along with strong, broad [OIII] 5007 line emission (L_5007 ~ 10^37 ergs/s, with a velocity FWHM of 1500 km/s). We use the extensive new data to quantify the variability in both the X-rays and bright [OIII]5007 emission line, and any potential relationship between these two.