Related papers: Spectroscopic comparison between ultraluminous X-r…
Although we are nearing a consensus that most ULXs are stellar-mass black holes in a super-Eddington state, little is yet established of the physics of this accretion mode. Here, we use a combined X-ray spectral and timing analysis of a…
Possible manifestations of accreting magnetars are discussed. It is shown that the four ultra-luminous X-ray pulsars can be understood in the accreting low magnetic field magnetar scenario. The NGC300 ULX1 pulsar may have a higher dipole…
Since their discovery, Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have attracted attention due to their combination of extreme luminosities and extra-nuclear locations. However, they are a fairly rare phenomenon, and attempts to investigate the…
It is now widely accepted that most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are binary systems whose large (above $10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$) apparent luminosities are explained by super-Eddington accretion onto a stellar-mass compact object. Many…
We search for transient sources in a sample of ULXs from the 3XMM-DR4 release of the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue in order to find candidate neutron star ULXs alternating between an accreting state and the propeller regime, in…
Most Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are thought to be powered by super-Eddington accretion onto stellar-mass compact objects. Accretors in this extreme regime are naturally expected to ionise copious amounts of plasma in their vicinity…
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…
Two recent observations of the nearby galaxy NGC 6946 with NuSTAR, one simultaneous with an XMM-Newton observation, provide an opportunity to examine its population of bright accreting sources from a broadband perspective. We study 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…
We report the identification of a recurrent ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), a highly absorbed X-ray source (possibly a background AGN), and a young supernova remnant near the center of the starburst galaxy M82. From a series of Chandra…
We report on the discovery of a new, transient ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in the galaxy NGC 7090. This new ULX, which we refer to as NGC 7090 ULX3, was discovered via monitoring with $Swift$ during 2019-20, and to date has exhibited a…
(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…
M82 X-1 is one of the brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) known, which, assuming Eddington-limited accretion and other considerations, makes it one of the best intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates. However, the ULX may…
We present broadband X-ray analyses of a sample of bright ultraluminous X-ray sources with the goal of investigating the spectral similarity of this population to the known ULX pulsars, M82 X-2, NGC7793 P13 and NGC5907 ULX. We perform a…
Data from {\it Chandra} observations of thirty nearby galaxies were analyzed and 365 X-ray point sources were chosen whose spectra were not contaminated by excessive diffuse emission and not affected by photon pile up. The spectra of these…
Supercritical accretion onto compact objects may drive massive winds that are nearly spherical, optically thick, and Eddington limited. Blackbody emission from the photosphere is the direct observational signature of the wind. Here we…
A number of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are physically associated with extragalactic globular clusters (GCs). We undertake a systematic X-ray analysis of eight of the brightest of these sources. We fit the spectra of the GC ULXs to…
A new, transient ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) was recently discovered by Chandra in M31 with a luminosity at ~ 5 x 10^39 erg/s. Here we analyse a series of five subsequent XMM-Newton observations. The steady decline in X-ray luminosity…
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…
We examined spectral evolution in ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with apparent luminosities of about 10^40 ergs/s. Based on new results in this paper and those reported in the literature, two common spectral behaviors were found. Some…