Related papers: Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in External Galaxies
We review the available estimates of the masses of the compact object in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) and critically reconsider the stellar-mass versus intermediate-mass black hole interpretations. Black holes of several hundreds to…
We investigate the evolution of the properties of model populations of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) consisting of a black-hole accretor in a binary with a donor star. We have computed models corresponding to three different…
In this proof-of-concept study we demonstrate that in a binary system mass can be transferred toward an accreting compact object at extremely high rate. If the transferred mass is efficiently converted to X-ray luminosity (with disregard of…
Multiwavelength observations may help us understand the physical nature of the ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) found in external galaxies. Enabled by the arcsecond X-ray source positions now available from Chandra, there has been…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) are off-nuclear point sources in nearby galaxies whose X-ray luminosity exceeds the theoretical maximum for spherical infall (the Eddington limit) onto stellar-mass black holes. Their luminosity ranges from…
I give a brief review of how X-rays from nearby galaxies are used as direct tracers of recent star formation. This leads to the conclusion that it is the most luminous point-like sources that are associated with star formation and that the…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent the closest and most accessible laboratories to study sustained super-Eddington accretion onto compact objects. Over the past decade, the discoveries of coherent pulsations in a few ULXs has…
Today's sensitive, high-resolution X-ray observations allow the study of populations of X-ray sources, in the luminosity range of Galactic X-ray binaries, in galaxies as distant as 20-30 Mpc. The traditional astronomical tools of…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are some of the brightest phenomena found outside of a galaxy's nucleus, and their explanation typically invokes accretion of material onto a black hole. Here, we perform the largest population study to…
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…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are believed to be X-ray binary systems, but previous observational and theoretical studies tend to prefer a black hole rather than a neutron star accretor. The recent discovery of 1.37 s pulsations…
This paper investigates the formation, populations, and evolutionary paths of UltraLuminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) within Globular Clusters (GCs). ULXs, characterised by their extreme X-ray luminosities, present a challenge to our…
Little is presently known about the nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX). Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain their properties: intermediate-mass BHs, Kerr BHs, young SNR, or background AGN. Some of the current…
The presence or lack of eclipses in the X-ray lightcurves of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) can be directly linked to the accreting system geometry. In the case where the compact object is stellar mass and radiates isotropically, we…
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…
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…
Although ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX) are important for astrophysics due to their extreme apparent super-Eddington luminosities, their nature is still poorly known. Theoretical and observational studies suggest that ULXs could be a…