Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources: Extreme Accretion and Feedback

Pinto, Ciro; Walton, Dominic J.

doi:10.1007/978-981-99-4409-5_12

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 174 publications

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“…Winds in XRBs are commonly identified via absorption lines in the Fe K band from hot plasmas (typically Fe XXV-XXVI), and in the soft band from a forest of H-and He-like ions of several elements from C to Fe [for a review see Neilsen and Degenaar (2023)]. Initial searches for Fe XXV-XXVI in ULXs did not result in detections [see, e.g., Walton et al (2013)], most likely due to their soft spectra or high ionisation state of the gas [for a review on ULX winds see Pinto and Walton (2023)]. Evidence of atomic lines in lowresolution ULX X-ray spectra were found in the form of residuals around 1 keV with respect to the continuum model through high-count-rate XMM-Newton EPIC spectra (Stobbart et al, 2006;Middleton et al, 2014;2015b).…”

Section: Where Does the Transferred Mass Go?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10.3389/fspas.2023 The very low detection rate of Fe K lines arises as a combination of low effective area in current instruments, high background, and low ionic fractions. The latter is a consequence of the soft radiation field of ULXs (e.g., Pinto and Walton, 2023). However, in ULXs likely seen at low inclinations [e.g., the hard ultraluminous, or HUL, systems of Sutton et al (2013) with spectral slopes Γ < 2], the continuum is strong, likely overwhelming the lines in the soft band (e.g., Middleton et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Where Does the Transferred Mass Go?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs, see Kaaret et al, 2017;Fabrika et al, 2021;King et al, 2023;Pinto and Walton, 2023 for recent reviews) are off-nuclear X-ray sources whose apparent luminosities exceed the Eddington limit for a stellar-mass black hole (e.g., ∼10 39 erg s −1 for a ∼10M ⊙ black hole).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The high energy X-ray probe (HEX-P): studying extreme accretion with ultraluminous X-ray sources

Bachetti,

Middleton,

Pinto

et al. 2023

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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Introduction: Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent an extreme class of accreting compact objects: from the identification of some of the accretors as neutron stars to the detection of powerful winds travelling at 0.1–0.2 c, the increasing evidence points towards ULXs harbouring stellar-mass compact objects undergoing highly super-Eddington accretion. Measuring their intrinsic properties, such as the accretion rate onto the compact object, the outflow rate, the masses of accretor/companion-hence their progenitors, lifetimes, and future evolution-is challenging due to ULXs being mostly extragalactic and in crowded fields. Yet ULXs represent our best opportunity to understand super-Eddington accretion physics and the paths through binary evolution to eventual double compact object binaries and gravitational-wave sources. Methods: Through a combination of end-to-end and single-source simulations, we investigate the ability of HEX-P to study ULXs in the context of their host galaxies and compare it to XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, the current instruments with the most similar capabilities.Results: HEX-P’s higher sensitivity, which is driven by its narrow point-spread function and low background, allows it to detect pulsations and broad spectral features from ULXs better than XMM-Newton and NuSTAR.Discussion: We describe the value of HEX-P in understanding ULXs and their associated key physics, through a combination of broadband sensitivity, timing resolution, and angular resolution, which make the mission ideal for pulsation detection and low-background, broadband spectral studies.

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Section: Where Does the Transferred Mass Go?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Where Does the Transferred Mass Go?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The high energy X-ray probe (HEX-P): studying extreme accretion with ultraluminous X-ray sources

Bachetti,

Middleton,

Pinto

et al. 2023

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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“…Ultraluminous X-ray sources [1][2][3] are defined as point-like, off nuclear X-ray sources exceeding the (isotropic) Eddington limit for a stellar-mass Black Hole (StBH; 𝐿 ULX > 3𝑥10 39 ergs s −1 ). The first evidence of these sources came from Einstein [4] observations, but it was not until the early 2000's that, in a very short time, the three currently leading models for ULX apparent luminosities were proposed: intermediate mass black holes (IMBH [5]), geometric beaming [6], proper super-Eddington fluxes (Begelman et al 2002) [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing (Pulsating) ULX-ray sources – lessons learned from M82

Bachetti

2024

Proceedings of Multifrequency Behaviour of High Energy Cosmic Sources XIV — PoS(MULTIF2023)

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M82 X-2 is the archetypal pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources -X-ray pulsars whose flux can be hundreds of times their Eddington limit. Since 2014, we have been conducting a thorough observation campaign of this pulsar, tracking the acceleration of its rotation over time, and now, tracking its orbital evolution. This work can in principle be applied to other ULXs as well, to try to understand their age, their mechanism of mass transfer and, ultimately, their origin and their fate.

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Beyond Accretion Limits: The Rise of Pulsating Gems

Israel,

Amato,

Imbrogno

et al. 2024

Astron Nachr

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The discovery of several ultraluminous X‐ray sources exhibiting fast and rapidly evolving X‐ray pulsations unequivocally associates these sources with accreting neutron stars orbiting relatively massive companion stars (> 8M). Among these ULXs, the brightest pulsating ULX (PULX), NGC 5907 ULX‐1, displays a peak luminosity (~2 × 1041 erg s−1) that exceeds its Eddington limit by ~1000 times. These discoveries have raised several key questions, the most urgent of which include: what physical process (or processes) is driving the observed luminosities? What is the nature of compact objects in the still non‐pulsating ULXs, and how can we unambiguously ascertain it? Why are PULXs so rare and elusive, and how can we identify more members of this class? In this contribution, a brief overview of the ULX class is provided focusing on PULXs, presenting the most recent results obtained for NGC 5907 ULX‐1, NGC 7793 P13, M82 X‐2 and M51 ULX‐7. How current‐generation X‐ray missions are already providing (and can continue to do so in the next years) a wealth of information to address the aforementioned questions is also outlined.

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Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources: Extreme Accretion and Feedback

Cited by 3 publications

References 174 publications

The high energy X-ray probe (HEX-P): studying extreme accretion with ultraluminous X-ray sources

The high energy X-ray probe (HEX-P): studying extreme accretion with ultraluminous X-ray sources

Timing (Pulsating) ULX-ray sources – lessons learned from M82

Beyond Accretion Limits: The Rise of Pulsating Gems

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