Related papers: The sub-classes of ultraluminous X-ray sources
To test the idea that ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies represent a class of accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), we have undertaken a program to identify ULXs and a lower luminosity X-ray comparison sample…
Ultra-/hyper-luminous X-ray sources (ULX/HLX) could be interesting laboratories to improve our understanding of the supermassive black hole growth through super-Eddington accretion episodes and successive mergers of lighter holes. ULXs are…
The small subset of hyper-luminous X-ray sources with luminosities in excess of ~1E41 erg/s are hard to explain without the presence of an intermediate mass black hole, as significantly super-Eddington accretion and/or very small beaming…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are off-nuclear point sources in nearby galaxies with luminosities well exceeding the Eddington limit for stellar-mass objects. It has been recognized after the discovery of pulsating ULXs (PULXs) that a…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are a population of extragalactic objects whose luminosity exceeds the Eddington limit for a 10 Msun black hole (BH). Their properties have been widely interpreted in terms of accreting stellar-mass or…
Observations of high-redshift quasars frequently promote suggestions of large black hole masses, whose presence so early in cosmic time is not easily explicable. I consider the parallel with ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- now known…
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…
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…
The study of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) has changed dramatically over the last decade. In this review we first describe the most important observations of ULXs in various wavebands, and across multiple scales in space and time. We…
I suggest that there are two classes of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), corresponding to super-Eddington mass inflow in two situations: (a) thermal-timescale mass transfer in high-mass X-ray binaries, and (b) long-lasting transient…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are mostly extragalactic non-nuclear point sources having X-ray luminosity exceeding the Eddington luminosity of 10 $M_\odot$ black hole i.e., $L_X \geq $ 10$^{39}$ erg ~s$^{-1}$. They are observed in all…
The physical nature of ultraluminous x-ray sources is uncertain. Stellar mass black holes with beamed radiation and intermediate mass black holes with isotropic radiation are two plausible explanations. We discovered radio emission from an…
We examine the possibility that Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent the extreme end of the black hole X-ray binary (XRB) population. Based on their X-ray properties, we suggest that ULXs are persistently in a high/hard spectral…
X-ray observations have revealed in other galaxies a class of extra-nuclear X-ray point sources with X-ray luminosities of $10^{39}$--$10^{41}$ erg/sec, exceeding the Eddington luminosity for stellar mass X-ray binaries. These…
We consider ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) where the accretor is a neutron star rather than a black hole. We show that the recently-discovered example (M82 X-2) fits naturally into the simple picture of ULXs as beamed X-ray sources fed…
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 luminosities of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) require an exotic solution with either super-critical accretion modes onto stellar mass black holes or sub-critical accretion onto intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) being invoked.…
We present spectroscopic observations of six optical counterparts of intermediate luminosity X-ray sources (ULXs) around nearby galaxies. The spectra of the six objects show the presence of broad emission features. The identification of…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have captivated researchers for decades due to their exceptionally high luminosities and unique spectral characteristics. Some of these sources defy expectations by exhibiting super-Eddington luminosities…
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…