A multiwavelength study of the new Galactic center black hole candidate MAXI J1744-294
Shifra Mandel, Kaya Mori, Anna Ciurlo, Paul A. Draghis, Noa Grollimund, Gaurava K. Jaisawal, Chichuan Jin, Benjamin Levin, Lorenzo Marra, Eric Miao, Maxime Parra, Mark Reynolds, Sean A. Granados, Matteo Bachetti, Fiamma Capitanio, Nathalie Degenaar, Charles J. Hailey, JaeSub Hong, Sara Motta, Gabriele Ponti, Michael M. Shara, Megumi Shidatsu, John A. Tomsick, Randall Campbell, Stéphane Corbel, Rob Fender, Andrea Ghez, Jonathan Grindlay, Matthew W. Hosek Jr., Kai Matsunaga, Romana Mikušincová, Melania Nynka, Grace Sanger-Johnson, Giovanni Stel, Antonella Tarana, Rudy Wijnands, Shuo Zhang
Published: 2025/9/17
Abstract
For the first time in nearly a decade, a new, bright transient was detected in the central parsec (pc) of the Galaxy. MAXI J1744-294 was never observed in outburst prior to January 2025. We present the results of a broadband, multi-wavelength study of this enigmatic source, including data from the NuSTAR, Chandra, XMM-Newton, Swift, and NICER X-ray telescopes, as well as complementary radio and near-infrared observations. We find that MAXI J1744-294 remained in the bright/soft state throughout the first months of 2025. Spectral hardening was observed in April 2025, followed by a decline in flux. Based on the spectral and temporal characteristics of the source, we identify MAXI J1744-294 as a candidate black hole (BH) low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) $-$ the fourth candidate BH transient discovered within a (projected) distance of one pc from the Galactic supermassive black hole Sgr A*. This discovery provides further evidence for a cusp of BH-LMXBs in the central pc of our Galaxy, as argued for in previous observational work and suggested by analytical and theoretical work. Our multi wavelength study, involving a complementary range of observatories and spanning different outburst states, can serve as a model for future time domain astrophysics research.