Related papers: Spectral State Transitions of the Ultraluminous X-…
A standard disk around an accreting black hole may become effectively optically-thin and scattering dominated in the inner region, for high accretion rates (as already predicted by the Shakura-Sunyaev model). Radiative emission from that…
(Abridged) We revisit the question of the nature of ULXs through a detailed investigation of their spectral shape, using the highest quality X-ray data available in the XMM-Newton public archives. We confirm that simple spectral models…
The transient ULX in M83 that went into outburst in or shortly before 2010 is still active. Our new XMM-Newton spectra show that it has a curved spectrum typical of the upper end of the high/soft state or slim-disk state. It appears to be…
Two {\it ASCA} observations were made of two ultra-luminous compact X-ray sources (ULXs), Source 1 and Source 2, in the spiral galaxy IC 342. In the 1993 observation, Source 2 showed a 0.5--10 keV luminosity of $6 \times 10^{39}$ ergs…
The ultra-luminous X-ray (ULX) source ESO 243-49 HLX-1 currently provides the strongest evidence for the existence of intermediate mass black holes. We conduct an ongoing monitoring campaign with the Swift X-ray Telescope and found that…
The results of a spectral analysis, using {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it Chandra} data of the brightest ultra luminous X-ray source in the nearby galaxy M82, are presented. The spectrum of M82 X-1, was found to be unusually hard (photon spectral…
We report the results of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of an ultra-luminous supersoft X-ray source in M101. M101 ULX-1 underwent 2 outbursts in 2004 during which the peak bolometric luminosities reached 1e41 erg/s. The outburst…
We present the results of the first broadband X-ray analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5055 ULX X-1, combining simultaneous data from XMM$-$Newton and NuSTAR missions, with a combined exposure time of $\sim$100 ks across the…
Soft, potentially thermal spectral components observed in some ULXs can be fit with models for emission from cool, optically-thick accretion disks. If that description is correct, the low temperatures that are observed imply accretion onto…
Black hole X-ray binaries show signs of non-thermal emission in the optical/near-infrared range. We analyze the optical/near-infrared SMARTS data on GX339$-$4 over the 2002--2011 period. Using the soft state data, we estimate the…
Despite two decades of studies, it is still not clear whether ULX spectral transitions are due to stochastic variability in the wind or variations in the accretion rate or in the source geometry. The compact object is also unknown for most…
ASCA X-ray spectra of many ULXs were described in terms of optically thick emission from hot (kT ~1-2keV) accretion disks, while recent XMM-Newton and Chandra observations have revealed a cool (kT ~0.2keV), soft X-ray excess emission from a…
We have analyzed an XMM-Newton observation of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1313, which contains two "ultra-luminous" X-ray (ULX) sources. We measure isotropic luminosities of L_X = 2.0 * 10^(40) erg/s and L_X = 6.6 * 10^(39) erg/s for NGC…
In the absence of direct kinematic measurements, the mass of an accreting black hole is sometimes inferred from the X-ray spectral parameters of its accretion disk; specifically, from the temperature and normalization of a disk-blackbody…
Using the X-ray data taken with ASCA, a detailed analysis was made of intensity and spectral variations of three ultra-luminous extra-galactic compact X-ray sources (ULXs); IC 342 source 1, M81 X-6, and NGC 1313 source B, all exhibiting…
X-ray spectral state transitions are a key signature of black hole X-ray binaries and follow a well-defined pattern. We examined 12 XMM-Newton observations of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1313, which harbors two compact ultraluminous X-ray…
There are two proposed explanations for ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with luminosities in excess of $10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$. They could be intermediate-mass black holes (more than 100-1,000, solar masses, $M_\odot$) radiating at…
The ultraluminous compact X-ray sources (ULXs) generally show a curving spectrum in the 0.7--10 keV ASCA bandpass, which looks like a high temperature analogue of the disk dominated high/soft state spectra seen in Galactic black hole…
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…
We have analyzed the archival XMM-Newton data of the bright Ultra-Luminous X-ray Source (ULX) M82 X-1 with an 105 ksec exposure when the source was in the steady state. Thanks to the high photon statistics from the large effective area and…