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Mass, Spin, and Ultralight Boson Constraints from the Intermediate Mass Black Hole in the Tidal Disruption Event 3XMM J215022.4-055108

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arxiv 2104.01498 v2 pith:XLRJOGZP submitted 2021-04-03 astro-ph.HE

classification astro-ph.HE
keywords massspinblackholeconfidenceconstraindiskdisruption
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

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We simultaneously and successfully fit the multi-epoch X-ray spectra of the tidal disruption event (TDE) 3XMM J215022.4-055108 using a modified version of our relativistic slim disk model that now accounts for angular momentum losses from radiation. We explore the effects of different disk properties and of uncertainties in the spectral hardening factor fc and redshift z on the estimation of the black hole mass M and spin a. Across all choices of theoretical priors, we constrain M to less than 2.2e4 Ms at 1 sigma confidence. Assuming that the TDE host is a star cluster associated with the adjacent, brighter, barred lenticular galaxy at z=0.055, we constrain M and a to be (1.75+0.45-0.05)e4 Ms and 0.8+0.12-0.02, respectively, at 1 sigma confidence. The high, but sub-extremal, spin suggests that, if this intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) has grown significantly since formation, it has acquired its last e-fold in mass in a way incompatible with both the standard and chaotic limits of gas accretion. Ours is the first clear IMBH with a spin measurement. As such, this object represents a novel laboratory for astro-particle physics; its M and a place tight limits on the existence of ultralight bosons, ruling out those with masses 1.0e-15 to 1.0e-16 eV.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

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    Boson clouds around binary black holes generically deplete through orbital resonances, driving eccentricity and spin-orbit tilt toward fixed points—including off-equatorial ones—leaving observable gravitational-wave trails.

  2. Stepping Up Superradiance Constraints on Axions

    hep-ph 2024-12 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    Including superradiant axion states through n=5 with relativistic scattering rates strengthens black-hole spin-down constraints on axions by roughly an order of magnitude.

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