Related papers: The Brightest Black Holes
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are sources observed to exceed the Eddington limit of a stellar-mass black hole (BH). A fraction of ULX sources show X-ray pulses which are evidence for accreting neutron stars (NSs). Theoretical studies…
We report the results of a programme of dual-epoch Chandra ACIS-S observations of five ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby spiral galaxies. All five ULXs are detected as unresolved, point-like X-ray sources by Chandra, though two…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) display a typical set of properties not seen in Galactic stellar-mass black holes (BHs): higher luminosity Lx > 3 10^39 erg/s, unusually soft X-ray components (kT < 0.3 keV) and a characteristic…
Variability is a powerful tool to investigate properties of X-ray binaries (XRB), in particular for Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) that are mainly detected in the X-ray band. For most ULXs the nature of the accretor is unknown, although…
We suggest that the ultraluminous X-ray sources located in external galaxies (ULXs) are supercritical accretion disks like that in SS433, observed close to the disk axis. We estimate parameters of the SS433 funnel, where the relativistic…
Some ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) exhibit X-ray pulses, and their central sources are thought to be neutron stars. It has also been suggested that some are transient sources with Be-type donors. In this study, we use the mass…
The controversy over whether ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) contain a new intermediate-mass class of black holes (IMBHs) remains unresolved. We present new analyses of the deepest XMM-Newton observations of ULXs that address their…
Gravitational waves from the binary black hole (BH) merger GW150914 may enlighten our understanding of ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs), as BHs>30Msun can reach luminosities>4x10^39 erg s^-1 without exceeding their Eddington limit. It is…
One hundred fifty-four discrete non-nuclear Ultra-Luminous X-ray (ULX) sources, with intrinsic X-ray luminosities >1e39 ergs/s, are identified in 82 galaxies observed with Chandra's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer. Source positions, X-ray…
Recently, several ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources were shown to host a neutron star (NS) accretor. We perform a suite of evolutionary calculations which show that, in fact, NSs are the dominant type of ULX accretor. Although black holes…
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…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have been described variously as the most luminous normal X-ray binaries, as hypernovae, and as "intermediate-mass" black holes with masses of hundreds to thousands of solar masses. We present results on…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) is presently unknown. A possible explanation is that they are accreting intermediate mass black holes (IBHs) that are fed by Roche lobe overflow from a tidally captured stellar companion. We…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources are extragalactic, off-nucleus, point sources in galaxies with an X-ray luminosity above 3x10^39 erg/s, thought to be powered by accretion onto a compact object. Possible explanations include accretion onto…
We derive the luminosity-temperature relation for the super-critically accreting black holes (BHs) and compare it to the data on ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). At super-Eddington accretion rates, an outflow forms within the…
We report the discovery of a ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX; CXO J133815.6+043255) in NGC 5252. This ULX is an off-nuclear point-source, which is 22$^{\prime\prime}$ away from the center of NGC 5252, and has an X-ray luminosity of 1.5…
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…
X-ray binaries with black hole (BH) accretors and massive star donors at short orbital periods of a few days can evolve into close binary BH systems (BBH) that merge within the Hubble time through stable mass transfer evolution. From…
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…
To test the idea that ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies represent a class of accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), we have undertaken a program to identify ULXs and a lower luminosity X-ray comparison sample…