Related papers: The hyperluminous X-ray source candidate in IC 432…
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…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) were an enigma since their discovery. ASCA showed that they are accreting black holes (BHs) with unknown mass, while Chandra & XMM data shows that the many of the lower luminosity ULXs can be explained by…
The point-like X-ray source HLX-1, close to the S0 galaxy ESO 243-49, is the brightest known ultraluminous X-ray source and one the strongest intermediate-mass black hole candidates. We argue that the counterpart of HLX-1 may be the nucleus…
The Ultra Luminous X-ray (ULX) source HLX-1 in the galaxy ESO 243-49 has an observed maximum unabsorbed X-ray luminosity of 1.3e42 erg/s (0.2-10.0 keV). From the conservative assumption that this value exceeds the Eddington limit by at most…
A sub-set of the brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), with X-ray luminosities well above $10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$, typically have energy spectra which can be well described as hard power-laws, and short-term variability in excess of…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are some of the most enigmatic X-ray bright sources known to date. It is generally accepted that they cannot host black holes as large as those associated with active galaxies, but they appear to be…
We report the discovery of an active intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidate in the center of nearby barred bulgeless galaxy $\rm NGC~3319$. The point X-ray source revealed by archival Chandra and XMM-Newton observations is spatially…
An open question remains whether Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) really contain intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). We carefully investigated the XMM-Newton EPIC spectra of the four ULXs that were claimed to be strong candidates of…
In a number of the most luminous ULXs (L ~ 1 E+40 erg/s) in nearby galaxies, observations with XMM-Newton and Chandra are revealing evidence which suggests that these ULXs may harbor intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). The detection of…
The point-like X-ray source HLX-1 is the brightest known ultraluminous X-ray source and likely the strongest intermediate-mass black hole candidate. HLX-1 is hosted in the S0 galaxy ESO 243-49, but offset with respect to the nucleus, and…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent a class of binary systems that are more luminous than any black hole in our Galaxy. The nature of these objects remained unclear for a long time. The most popular models for the ULXs involve…
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…
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…
The nature of ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs), which are off-nuclear extragalactic X-ray sources that exceed the Eddington luminosity for a stellar-mass black hole, is still largely unknown. They might be black hole X-ray binaries in a…
The extreme extragalactic sources known as Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULX) represent a unique testing environment for compact objects population studies and the accretion process. Their nature has long been disputed. Their luminosity,…
The ultra-luminous X-ray source CXO~J133815.6+043255 is a strong candidate for a bona-fide intermediate mass black hole, residing in the outskirts of NGC~5252. We present 22~GHz radio observations of this source obtained serendipitously in…
The existence of black holes of masses ~ 10^2-10^5 Msun has important implications for the formation and evolution of star clusters and supermassive black holes. One of the strongest candidates to date is the hyperluminous X-ray source…
The origin of Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies whose X-ray luminosities exceed those of the brightest black holes in our Galaxy by hundreds and thousands of times is mysterious. The most popular models for the ULXs…