The Search for Microquasars in M33 from the PHATTER-VIRUS Survey
Open Access
- Author:
- Hodges, Joel
- Area of Honors:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Donald P Schneider, Thesis Supervisor
Steinn Sigurdsson, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Microquasar
spectroscopy
triangulum galaxy - Abstract:
- We describe an optical survey for microquasars in the nearby galaxy M33. These objects, thought to be stellar mass black holes accreting material from a nearby companion star, are exceedingly rare, with only a dozen known in our galaxy. The brightest optical microquasar, SS 433, has spectacular emission lines in its spectra, which display extraordinarily large velocities, up to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. Our survey was undertaken using the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph\\(VIRUS) of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). VIRUS can simultaneously obtain over 30,000 spectra covering 3500-5500 Angstroms. We have acquired VIRUS observations covering a large fraction of M33 and have examined a set of 432 locations based on a microquasar candidate list presented by Calzetti et al. (1995). Each Calzetti target object is cross-referenced with known surveys of radio sources, X-ray sources, SNRs, HII regions, and Wolf-Rayet stars, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope's PHATTER F475W imaging. Based on their emission features at H beta, [OIII] 5007, CIII/NIII 4645, and He 4686, or other notable spectral features, a total of 40 candidates were selected for further review. Each of these 40 objects were classified as one of six types of objects. None of the candidates meet the requirements to be considered a microquasar. It seems unlikely at this time that an SS 433 analog exists in M33.