Related papers: Optically thick outflows in ultraluminous supersof…
Despite much observational and theoretical effort little is presently known about the nature of the luminous non-nuclear X-ray sources which appear to largely surpass the Eddington limit of a few solar masses. Here we present first results…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are off-nuclear X-ray sources in nearby galaxies with X-ray luminosities $\geq$ 10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The measurement of the black hole (BH) masses of ULXs is a long-standing problem. Here we estimate…
A puzzling class of exotic objects, which have been known about for more than 30 years, is reaching a new era of understanding. We have discovered hundreds of Ultra Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) - non-nuclear sources with X-ray luminosity…
Recent evidence - in particular the hard X-ray spectra obtained by NuSTAR, and the large amplitude hard X-ray variability observed when ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) show soft spectra - reveals that common ULX behaviour is inconsistent…
We present some results from an archival VLA study of ultraluminous X-ray source s (ULXs). These unresolved non-nuclear X-ray sources have luminosities (L_X >= 1 0^39 ergs/sec) which may require somewhat exotic explanations, such as…
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 investigate outflows and the physics of super-Eddington versus sub-Eddington regimes in black hole systems. Our focus is on prospective science using next-generation high-resolution soft X-ray instruments. We highlight the properties of…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are non-nuclear point-like objects observed with extremely high X-ray luminosity that exceeds the Eddington limit of a $\rm10\,M_\odot$ black hole. A fraction of ULXs has been confirmed to contain neutron…
Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) provide a unique opportunities to probe the geometry and energetics of super-Eddington accretion. The radiative processes involved in super-Eddington accretion are not well understood, and so studying…
I suggest that the beaming factor in bright ULXs varies as $b \propto \dot m^{-2}$, where $\dot m$ is the Eddington ratio for accretion. This is required by the observed universal $L_{\rm soft} \propto T^{-4}$ relation between soft--excess…
We report on multiwavelength observations of the supersoft ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in NGC 247 made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We aligned the X-ray and optical images using three objects…
We present results from a Chandra study of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in a sample of 17 nearby (D_L<60 Mpc) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), selected to have star formation rates (SFRs) in excess of 7 M_sun yr^-1 and low…
It is sometimes suggested that phenomenological power-law plus cool disc-blackbody models represent the simplest, most robust interpretation of the X-ray spectra of bright ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs); this has been taken as evidence…
Most of the sources detected in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV; 100 Ang to 600 Ang) by the Rosat WFC and EUVE all-sky surveys have been identified with active late-type stars and hot white dwarfs that are near enough to escape absorption by…
Observations of the Ultra Luminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg IX X-1 were carried out with Suzaku twice, once on 2012 April 13 and then on 2012 October 24, with exposures of 180 ks and 217 ks, respectively. The source showed a hard…
We present the results of optical panoramic and long-slit spectroscopy of the nebula MF16 associated with the Ultraluminous X-ray Source NGC6946 ULX-1. More than 20 new emission lines are identified in the spectra. Using characteristic line…
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…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are believed to be stellar mass black holes or neutron stars accreting beyond the Eddington limit. Determining the nature of the compact object and the accretion mode from broadband spectroscopy is…
We report on a new XMM-Newton observation of NGC 247 from December 2009. The galaxy contains a supersoft, ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) whose spectrum consists of a thermal component with a temperature about 0.1 keV and a power-law tail…
We have constructed a model which describes the optical emission from ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), and have used it to constrain the parameters of seven ULX systems. Our model assumes a binary nature for ULXs, and accounts for…