DISCOVERY OF THE CANDIDATE OFF-NUCLEAR ULTRASOFT HYPER-LUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCE 3XMM J141711.1+522541

Abstract

We report the discovery of an off-nuclear ultrasoft hyper-luminous X-ray source candidate 3XMM J141711.1+522541 in the inactive S0 galaxy SDSS J141711.07+522540.8 (z = 0.41827, d[subscript L] = 2.3 Gpc) in the Extended Groth Strip. It is located at a projected offset of ~1[" over .]0 (5.2 kpc) from the nucleus of the galaxy and was serendipitously detected in five XMM-Newton observations in 2000 July. Two observations have enough counts and can be fitted with a standard thermal disk with an apparent inner disk temperature kT[subscript MCD] ~ 0.13 keV and a 0.28–14.2 keV unabsorbed luminosity L[subscript X] ~ 4 × 10[superscript 43] erg s[superscript −1] in the source rest frame. The source was still detected in three Chandra observations in 2002 August, with similarly ultrasoft but fainter spectra (kT[subscript MCD] ~ 0.17 keV, L[subscript X ] ~ 0.5 × 10[superscript 43] erg s[superscript −1]). It was not detected in later observations, including two by Chandra in 2005 October, one by XMM-Newton in 2014 January, and two by Chandra in 2014 September–October, implying a long-term flux variation factor of >14. Therefore the source could be a transient with an outburst in 2000–2002. It has a faint optical counterpart candidate, with apparent magnitudes of m[subscript F606W] = 26.3 AB mag and m[subscript F814W] = 25.5 AB mag in 2004 December (implying an absolute V-band magnitude of ~−15.9 AB mag). We discuss various explanations for the source and find that it is best explained as a massive black hole (BH) embedded in the nucleus of a possibly stripped satellite galaxy, with the X-ray outburst due to tidal disruption of a surrounding star by the BH. The BH mass is ~10[superscript 5] M[subscript ⊙], assuming the peak X-ray luminosity at around the Eddington limit.