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 investigate whether or not it can explain the soft emission component seen in the energy spectra of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Based on high-quality XMM-Newton spectra of 15 ULXs, we find that the soft component can be modeled as blackbody emission with a nearly constant luminosity, and the 5 known pulsating ULXs (PULXs) in the sample display a blackbody luminosity among the lowest. These are consistent with the scenario that the soft emission originates from the photosphere of the optically thick wind. However, the derived blackbody luminosity for PULXs is significantly above the Eddington limit for neutron stars. A possible explanation is that a considerable fraction of the optically thick wind roots in the inner accretion flow, where the radiative flux could exceed the Eddington limit due to a reduced scattering cross-section or enhanced radiation transfer with magnetic buoyancy. Based on a wind model, the inferred mass accretion rate in these standard ULXs overlaps but is on average lower than that in luminous and very soft X-ray sources, which are also candidates with supercritical accretion. Alternatively, it cannot be ruled out that the soft emission component is a result of the hard component, e.g., via down-scattering in a cool medium, as a weak correlation may exist between them.
The black hole mass and accretion rate in 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$^{1,2}$, is an unsolved problem. Here we report that all ULXs ever spectroscopically observed have about the same optical spectra apparently of WNL type (late nitrogen Wolf-Rayet stars) or LBV (luminous blue variables) in their hot state, which are very scarce stellar objects. We show that the spectra do not originate from WNL/LBV type donors but from very hot winds from the accreti…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are thought to be supercritical accreting compact objects, where massive outflows are inevitable. Using the long-term monitoring data with the Swift X-ray Telescope, we identified a common feature in bright, hard ULXs: they display a quasi-periodic modulation in their hard X-ray band but not in their soft band. As a result, some sources show a bimodal distribution on the hardness intensity map. We argue that these model-independent results can be well interpreted in a picture that involves supercritical accretion with precession, where the hard X-ray emi…
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 involve either intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) or stellar-mass black holes accreting at super-Eddington rates. Here we review the ULX properties, their X-ray spectra indicate a presence of hot winds in their accretion disks supposing the supercritical accretion. However, the strongest evidences come from optical spectroscopy. The spectra of the ULX count…
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 magnetic field than other sources. General constraint on their mass accretion rate confirmed their super-Eddington nature. Lower limits on their beaming factor are obtained. They do not seem to have strong beaming. The duty cycle of the ULX burst state can also be constrained by their timing observations. ULX pulsars may be in accretion equilibrium in the long…
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 involve either intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) or stellar-mass black holes accreting at super-Eddington rates. Here we review the ULX properties. Their X-ray spectra indicate a presence of hot winds in their accretion disks supposing the supercritical accretion. In recent years, new surprising results were discovered in X-ray data, ULX-pulsars and high-v…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are argued to be powered by supercritical accretion onto compact objects. One of the key questions regarding these objects is whether or not the hard X-rays are geometrically beamed toward the symmetric axis. We propose to test the scenario using disk irradiation, to see how much the outer accretion disk sees the central hard X-rays. We collect a sample of 11 bright ULXs with an identification of a unique optical counterpart, and model their optical fluxes considering two irradiating sources: soft X-rays from the photosphere of the optically thick wind d…
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 downturn in their spectra above ~ 5 keV. Such puzzling properties have been interpreted either as evidence of intermediate-mass BHs, or as emission from stellar-mass BHs accreting above their Eddington limit, analogous to some Galactic BHs at peak luminosity. Recently, a very soft X-ray spectrum has been observed in a rare and transient stellar-mass BH. Here we s…
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 either intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) or stellar-mass black holes accreting at super-Eddington rates. In the last few years our understating of these objects was significantly improved, which made the model of super-Eddington accretion much preferable. Both the X-ray and optical spectra provide evidence for the strong outflows coming from supercritical ac…
Luminosities of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are uncomfortably large if compared to the Eddington limit for isotropic accretion onto stellar-mass object. Most often either supercritical accretion onto stellar mass black hole or accretion onto intermediate mass black holes is invoked the high luminosities of ULXs. However, the recent discovery of coherent pulsations from M82 ULX with NuSTAR showed that another scenario implying accretion onto a magnetized neutron star is possible for ULXs. Motivated by this discovery, we re-visited the available XMM-Newton archival observations of several…
Transient ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) provide an important link bridging transient low-mass X-ray binaries and ULXs. Here we report the first discovery of both a canonical sub-Eddington outburst and an ultraluminous super-Eddington outburst from an unusual transient ULX, NGC 7793 P9 with a variability factor higher than $10^3$. Its X-ray spectrum switches between the typical high/soft state and the steep power-law state during the canonical outburst. The inner radius of the accretion disk and the disk temperature--luminosity correlation suggest that P9 harbors a stellar-mass black hole …
We present a high-quality hard X-ray spectrum of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5643 X-1 measured with NuSTAR in May-June 2014. We have obtained this spectrum by carefully separating the signals from the ULX and from the active nucleus of its host galaxy NGC 5643 located 0.8 arcmin away. Together with long XMM-Newton observations performed in July 2009 and August 2014, the NuSTAR data confidently reveal a high-energy cutoff in the spectrum of NGC 5643 X-1 above ~10 keV, which is a characteristic signature of ULXs. The NuSTAR and XMM-Newton data are consistent with the source having a…
We report the identification of the optical counterpart to the transient ultraluminuos X-ray source in the blue dwarf galaxy UGC6456 (VII Zw 403). The source is highly variable in both the X-ray (more 100 times, 0.3-10 keV) and optical (more 3 times, V band) ranges. The peak X-ray luminosity of UGC6456 ULX exceeds $10^{40}$ erg/s; the absolute magnitude when the source is optically bright is M$_V = -8.24\pm0.11$, which makes this source one of the brightest ULXs in the optical range. We found a correlation between the optical and X-ray fluxes (with a coefficient of $0.9\pm 0.3$), which may ind…
We study the optical counterparts of ultraluminous X-ray sources NGC4559 X-10 and NGC4395 ULX-1. Their absolute magnitudes, after taking the reddening into account, are $M_V \approx -5.3$ and $M_V \approx -6.2$, respectively. The spectral energy distribution of the NGC4559 X-10 counterpart is well fitted by a spectrum of an F-type star, whereas NGC4395 ULX-1 has a blue power-law spectrum. Optical spectroscopy of NGC4395 ULX-1 has shown a broad and variable HeII~$λ$4686 emission, which puts this object in line with all the other spectrally-studied ULXs. Using the Swift archival X-ray data for N…
The discovery of pulsations in several Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) demonstrated that a fraction of ULXs are powered by super-Eddington accretion onto neutron stars (NSs). This opened the debate as to what is the NS to black hole (BH) ratio within the ULX population and what physical mechanism allows ULXs to reach luminosities well in excess of their Eddington luminosity: strong magnetic fields or rather strong outflows that collimate the emission towards the observer. To distinguish between supercritically accreting BHs, weakly or strongly magnetised NSs, we study the long-term X-ray sp…
Ultraluminous pulsars are a definite proof that persistent super-Eddington accretion occurs in nature. They support the scenario according to which most Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) are super-Eddington accretors of stellar mass rather than sub-Eddington intermediate mass black holes. An important prediction of theories of supercritical accretion is the existence of powerful outflows of moderately ionized gas at mildly relativistic speeds. In practice, the spectral resolution of X-ray gratings such as RGS onboard XMM-Newton is required to resolve their observational signatures in ULXs. Us…
We evaluate the emission that must arise due to reflection of the putative collimated X-ray radiation of SS 433 by atomic gas and molecular clouds in the Galactic plane and compare the predicted signal with existing RXTE and ASCA data for the region of interest. Assuming that the intrinsic X-ray spectrum of SS 433 is similar to that of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), we obtain an upper limit of $\sim 2\times 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ on its total (angular-integrated) luminosity in the 2--10 keV energy band, which is only weakly dependent on the half-opening angle, $Θ_r$, of the emission cone. …
Neutrinos from hidden ultraluminous X-ray sources in the Galaxy
Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía (CCT La Plata, CONICET（阿根廷射电天文研究所）；CICPBA（拉普拉塔国立大学天文与地球物理学院）；UNLP)（马德普拉塔物理研究所）；Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata（马德普拉塔国立大学理学院物理系）；Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas de Mar del Plata (IFIMAR – CONICET)；Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
A model of population of ultraluminous X-ray sources with magnetised neutron stars (NULX) in a spiral galaxy with the star formation history similar to that in the thin disc of Milky Way is computed using a hybrid approach. First, applying analytical approximations (code BSE) we construct the ensemble of close binaries (CBS) which can be potential precursors of NULX. Next, evolution with accretion onto magnetised neutron stars (NS) is computed by the evolutionary code MESA. Accretion rate onto NS and X-ray luminosity are calculated for the models of sub- and supercritical discs and for the dis…
We present a new analysis of X-ray spectra of the archetypal ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg IX X-1 obtained by the Swift, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observatories. This ULX is a persistent source, with a typical luminosity of ~10^40 erg s^-1, that varied by a factor of 4 - 5 over eight years. We find that its spectra tend to evolve from relatively flat or two-component spectra in the medium energy band (1-6 keV), at lower luminosities, to a spectrum that is distinctly curved and disc-like at the highest luminosities, with the peak energy in the curved spectrum tending to decrease with in…
Supercritical accretion onto compact objects powers a massive wind that is optically thick and Eddington-limited. If most of the hard X-rays from the central disk are obscured by the wind, the source will display a blackbody-like spectrum with a luminosity scaled with the mass of the compact object. From the Chandra archive of nearby galaxies, we selected a sample of luminous and very soft sources and excluded contaminations from foreground objects and supernova remnants. They are found to be preferentially associated with late-type galaxies. The majority of sources in our sample are either to…
Despite two decades of studies, it is still not clear whether ULX spectral transitions are due to stochastic variability in the wind or variations in the accretion rate or in the source geometry. The compact object is also unknown for most ULXs. In order to place constraints onto such scenarios and on the structure of the accretion disc, we studied the temporal evolution of the spectral components of the variable source NGC 55 ULX-1. Using recent and archival data obtained with the XMM-Newton satellite, we modelled the spectra with two blackbody components which we interpret as thermal emissio…
Radio counterparts of ultraluminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies
Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino（意大利国家天体物理研究所都灵天文台）
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- off-nuclear extra-galactic sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, $\gtrsim 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ -- is still debated. One possibility is that ULXs are stellar black holes accreting beyond the Eddington limit. This view has been recently reinforced by the discovery of ultrafast outflows at $\sim 0.1$-$0.2c$ in the high resolution spectra of a handful of ULXs, as predicted by models of supercritical accretion discs. Under the assumption that ULXs are powered by super-Eddington accretion onto black holes, we use the properties of the observ…
By performing two-dimensional axisymmetric general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations with spin parameter $a^*$ varying from -0.9 to 0.9, we investigate the dependence on the black hole spin of the energy flow from supercritical accretion disk around stellar mass black hole. It is found that optically and geometrically thick disks form near the equatorial plane, and a part of the disk matter is launched from the disk surface in all models. The gas ejection is mainly driven by the radiative force, but magnetic force cannot be neglected, when $|a^*|$ is large. The energy out…
In the local Universe, integrated X-ray emission from high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) is dominated by the brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) with luminosity >10^40 erg/s. Such rare objects probably also dominated the production of X-rays in the early Universe. We demonstrate that a ULX with Lx~10^40-10^41 erg/s (isotropic-equivalent luminosity in the 0.1-10 keV energy band) shining for ~10^5 years (the expected duration of a supercritically accreting phase in HMXBs) can significantly ionise the ISM in its host dwarf galaxy of total mass M~10^7-10^8 Msun and thereby reduce its opacit…
Context. Particle-accelerating colliding-wind binaries (PACWBs) are systems that are formed by two massive and hot stars and produce nonthermal (NT) radiation. The key elements of these systems are fast winds and the shocks that they create when they collide. Binaries with nonaccreting young pulsars have also been detected as NT emitters, again as a consequence of the wind-wind interaction. Black holes (BHs) might produce NT radiation by this mechanism if they accrete at super-Eddington rates. In such cases, the disk is expected to launch a radiation-driven wind, and if this wind has an equato…
We investigate the spectral and temporal properties of ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC~55~ULX1 using {\it Swift}, {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it NuSTAR} observations conducted during 2013--2021. In these observations, the source flux varies by a factor of $\sim 5-6$, and we identify the source mainly in the $soft~ultraluminous$ (SUL) state of ULXs. We fit the X-ray spectra with a two thermal component model consisting of a blackbody (for the soft component) and a disc (for the hard component), and the soft component dominates in these observations. The soft component in the SUL state shows pr…
The bubble nebula surrounding NGC 1313 X-2 is believed to be powered by high velocity winds from the central ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) as a result of supercritical accretion. With the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observation of the nebula, we find enhanced OIII emission at locations spatially coincident with clusters of stars and the central X-ray source, suggesting that photoionization in addition to shock-ionization plays an important role in powering the nebula. The X-ray luminosity of the ULX and the number of massive stars in the nebula region can account for the requir…
JWST reveals a highly ionized nebula powered by an ultraluminous X-ray source with a massive black hole in the metal-poor galaxy Holmberg II
Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；AURA for ESA, Space Telescope Science Institute（欧洲航天局天文研究联盟，太空望远镜科学研究所）；Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam（波茨坦大学物理与天文学研究所）；Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent（根特大学天文台）；Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC)（空间科学研究所（地球物理与化学研究所，西班牙国家研究委员会））；Centro de Astrobiología – Departamento de Astrofísica (CSIC-INTA)（天体生物学中心 - 天体物理学系（西班牙国家研究委员会-国家航空航天技术研究所））
本研究通过JWST光谱观测，首次在ULX Ho II X-1周围探测到[Ne V]和[Ne VI]，直接证实该ULX关联低金属丰度星系中的高度电离星云，其电离由吸积黑洞驱动，电离条件呈各向异性。
Ultraluminous X-ray sources in the first eROSITA survey I. Candidate catalogs
Dr. Karl Remeis-Sternwarte and Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg（弗里德里希-亚历山大埃尔朗根-纽伦堡大学卡尔·雷梅斯天文台和埃尔朗根高能天体物理中心）；Durham University（杜伦大学）；Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas（希腊研究基金会天体物理研究所）；Physics Department, & Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Crete（克里特大学物理系及理论与计算物理研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）
Most ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are now thought to be powered by stellar-mass compact objects accreting at super-Eddington rates. While the discovery of evolutionary cycles have marked a breakthrough in our understanding of the accretion flow changes in the sub-Eddington regime in Galactic Black Hole Binaries, their evidence in the super-Eddington regime remained elusive. However, recent circumstantial evidence had hinted the presence of a recurrent evolutionary cycle in two archetypal ULXs: Holmberg II X-1 and NGC 5204 X-1. Here we build on our previous work and exploit the long-term…
Using a sample of two hundred luminous (L_unabs>10^38 erg/s, where L_unabs is the unabsorbed 0.25-8 keV luminosity) high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) candidates found with Chandra in 27 nearby galaxies, we have constructed the collective X-ray spectrum of HMXBs in the local Universe per unit star formation rate, corrected for observational biases associated with intrinsic diversity of HMXB spectra and X-ray absorption in the interstellar medium. This spectrum is well fit by a power law with a photon index Gamma=2.1+/-0.1 and is dominated by ultraluminous X-ray sources with L_unabs>10^39 erg/s. Har…
Photoionization of the Composite Nebula Surrounding NGC 5408 X-1: Implications for Beamed Emission
Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；INAF–Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino（意大利国家天体物理研究所都灵天文台）；The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Xiamen University（厦门大学）
We calculate X-ray signal that should arise due to reflection of the putative collimated X-ray emission of the Galactic supercritical accretor SS 433 on molecular clouds in its vicinity. The molecular gas distribution in the region of interest has been constructed based on the data of the BU-FCRAO GRS in $^{13}$CO $J=1\rightarrow0$ emission line, while the collimated emission was assumed to be aligned with the direction of the relativistic jets, which are continuously launched by the system. We consider all the available $Chandra$ observations covering the regions possibly containing the refle…
