Evidence for an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole: Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Ultraluminous Supersoft X-ray Source in M101 during its 2004 Outburst

We report the results of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of a new outburst of an ultraluminous supersoft X-ray source in M101. CXOU J140332.3+542103 was observed in a low luminosity state (L_x~1e37 erg/s) between 2004 January and May. The low-state X-ray spectra were relatively hard; the combined low state spectrum can be fitted with a combination of a power-law with photon index of 1.4 and a blackbody of 63 eV. During 2004 July, the source underwent a strong outburst and the peak 0.3-7 keV luminosity reached 3e40 erg/s, with a bolometric luminosity of about 1e41 erg/s. The outburst spectra were very soft and can generally be fitted with a blackbody model with temperatures of 50-100 eV. In two of the observations, absorption edges at 0.33 keV, 0.56 keV, 0.66 keV, and 0.88 keV were found. An XMM-Newton observation was also performed during the decay of the outburst, and a power-law tail was seen in addition to the supersoft spectrum. We consider different accretion models; one involving an intermediate-mass black hole can explain the observations.