Bibcode
Tao, Lian; Kaaret, Philip; Feng, Hua; Grisé, Fabien
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 750, Issue 2, article id. 110 (2012).
Advertised on:
5
2012
Journal
Citations
28
Refereed citations
27
Description
We report on UV and X-ray spectroscopy and broadband optical
observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source in Holmberg II. Fitting
various stellar spectral models to the combined, non-simultaneous data
set, we find that normal metallicity stellar spectra are ruled out by
the data, while low-metallicity, Z = 0.1 Z &sun;, late
O-star spectra provide marginally acceptable fits, if we allow for the
fact that X-ray ionization from the compact object may reduce or
eliminate UV absorption/emission lines from the stellar wind. By
contrast, an irradiated disk model fits both UV and optical data with
χ2/dof = 175.9/178, and matches the nebular extinction
with a reddening of E(B - V) = 0.05+0.05 -
0.04. These results suggest that the UV/optical flux of Holmberg
II X-1 may be dominated by X-ray irradiated disk emission.