Low Frequency (11 mHz) Oscillations in H1743-322: A New Class of Black Hole QPOs?

We report the discovery of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) at approx 11 mHz in two RXTE observations and one Chandra observation of the black hole candidate HI743-322. The QPO is observed only at the beginning of the 2010 and 2011 outbursts at similar hard color and intensity, suggestive of an accretion state dependence for the QPO. Although its frequency appears to be correlated with Xray intensity on timescales of a day, in successive outbursts eight months apart we measure a QPO frequency that differs by less than approximately equals 0.0015 Hz while the intensity had changed significantly. We show that this 11 mHz QPO is different from the so-called Type-C QPOs seen in black holes and that the mechanisms that produce the two flavors of variability are most probably independent. We compare the 11 mHz QPO with other variability phenomena seen in accreting black holes and neutron stars and conclude that although at 1-2 orders of magnitude lower in frequency, they best resemble the so-called "1 Hz" QPOs seen in dipping neutron star systems. If confirmed, H1743-322 is the first black hole showing this type of variability. Given the unusual characteristics and the hard-state dependence of the 11 mHz QPO, we speculate that these oscillations might instead be related to the radio jets observed in HI743-322. It remains unexplained, however, why similar QPOs have not yet been identified in other black holes and why they have only been seen in the last two outbursts of HI743-322.