Related papers: The missing link between ultraluminous X-ray sourc…
Various arguments strongly suggest that the population of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs: apparent X-ray luminosity > Eddington limit for 10 Msun ~10^39 erg/s) in nearby galaxies are mostly stellar-mass X-ray binaries in unusual…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are the most extreme members of the X-ray binary population, exhibiting X-ray luminosities that can surpass the 10^39 erg/s threshold (by orders of magnitude). They are mainly seen in external galaxies…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are those X-ray sources located away from the centre of their host galaxy with luminosities exceeding the Eddington limit of a stellar-mass black hole ($L_X>10^{39}\;{\rm erg\,s}^{-1}$). The discovery of…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- off-nuclear extra-galactic sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, $\gtrsim 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ -- is still debated. One possibility is that ULXs are stellar black holes accreting…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are accreting black holes that may contain the missing population of intermediate mass black holes or reflect super-Eddington accretion physics. Ten years of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of ULXs,…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are sources observed to exceed the Eddington limit of a stellar-mass black hole (BH). A fraction of ULX sources show X-ray pulses which are evidence for accreting neutron stars (NSs). Theoretical studies…
While many observed ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs, Lx > 10^39 erg s^-1) could be extragalactic X-ray binaries (XRBs) emitting close to the Eddington limit, the highest-luminosity ULXs (Lx > 3x10^39 erg s^-1) exceed the isotropic…
We review observations of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). X-ray spectroscopic and timing studies of ULXs suggest a new accretion state distinct from those seen in Galactic stellar-mass black hole binaries. The detection of coherent…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) are off-nuclear point sources in nearby galaxies whose X-ray luminosity exceeds the theoretical maximum for spherical infall (the Eddington limit) onto stellar-mass black holes. Their luminosity ranges from…
The controversy over whether ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) contain a new intermediate-mass class of black holes (IMBHs) remains unresolved. We present new analyses of the deepest XMM-Newton observations of ULXs that address their…
The origin and nature of Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) is a contentious and controversial topic. There are ongoing debates about the masses of the objects responsible, their sources of mass for accretion, and their relation to stellar…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have been puzzling us with a debate whether they consist of an intermediate mass black hole or super-Eddington accretion by a stellar mass black hole. Here we suggest that in the presence of large scale…
The nature of ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) has long been plagued by an ambiguity about whether the central compact objects are intermediate-mass (IMBH, >~ 10^3 M_sun) or stellar-mass (a few tens M_sun) black holes (BHs). The high…
In order to explain unusually high luminosity and spectral nature of ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs), some of the underlying black holes are argued to be of intermediate mass, between several tens to million solar masses. Indeed, there…
The ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) were isolated in external galaxies for the last 5 years. Their X-ray luminosities exceed 100-10000 times those of brightest Milky Way black hole binaries and they are extremely variable. There are two…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) display a typical set of properties not seen in Galactic stellar-mass black holes (BHs): higher luminosity Lx > 3 10^39 erg/s, unusually soft X-ray components (kT < 0.3 keV) and a characteristic…
We present the results from an X-ray and optical study of a new sample of eight extreme luminosity ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) candidates, which were selected as the brightest ULXs (with L_X > 5x10^40 erg/s) located within 100 Mpc…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are point-like sources that exhibit apparent X-ray luminosities exceeding the Eddington limit for stellar-mass compact objects. A widely accepted interpretation is that these systems are X-ray binaries…
We summarize indirect empirical arguments used for estimating black hole (BH) masses in ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). The interpretation of the X-ray data is still too model-dependent to provide tight constraints, but masses <~ 100…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) is presently unknown. A possible explanation is that they are accreting intermediate mass black holes (IBHs) that are fed by Roche lobe overflow from a tidally captured stellar companion. We…