Young rotation-powered pulsars as ultraluminous X-ray sources

Medvedev, A.; Poutanen, Juri

doi:10.1093/mnras/stt369

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…If defined strictly on the observed flux, the ULX population contains a small number of bright supernovae and supernova remnants. Young rotation-powered pulsars may theoretically reach sufficiently high luminosities (Perna & Stella 2004;Medvedev & Poutanen 2013), but no example has been identified. X-ray binaries can be distinguished by their irregular variability and relatively dim optical counterparts.…”

Section: X-ray Luminositiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

Kaaret

Feng

Roberts

2017

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

532

424

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We review observations of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). X-ray spectroscopic and timing studies of ULXs suggest a new accretion state distinct from those seen in Galactic stellar-mass black hole binaries. The detection of coherent pulsations indicates the presence of neutron-star accretors in three ULXs and therefore apparently super-Eddington luminosities. Optical and X-ray line profiles of ULXs and the properties of associated radio and optical nebulae suggest that ULXs produce powerful outflows, also indicative of super-Eddington accretion. We discuss models of super-Eddington accretion and their relation to the observed behaviors of ULXs. We review the evidence for intermediate mass black holes in ULXs. We consider the implications of ULXs for super-Eddington accretion in active galactic nuclei, heating of the early universe, and the origin of the black hole binary recently detected via gravitational waves.Comment: 38 pages, to appear in Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysic

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Section: X-ray Luminositiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

Kaaret

Feng

Roberts

2017

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

532

424

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“…Ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources are extragalactic compact accreting objects characterized by super-Eddington luminosities (LX ∼ 10 39−41 erg s −1 ) and unusual soft X-ray spectra with blackbody emission around < ∼ 0.3 keV and a downturn above ∼5 keV (Gladstone et al 2009;Feng & Soria 2011;Motch et al 2014). The extreme luminosities can be understood either as emission at the Eddington limit (LX < ∼ L Edd = 1.3 × 10 38 M/M⊙ erg s −1 ) from intermediate-mass (M ∼ 10 2−4 M⊙) black holes or as anisotropic emission with LX > L Edd from stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars (Soria 2007;Medvedev & Poutanen 2013;Bachetti et al 2014;Motch et al 2014;Pasham et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The X-ray Pulsar M82 X-2 on its Propeller Line

Christodoulou,

Kazanas,

Laycock

2016

Preprint

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NuSTAR has detected pulsations from the ultraluminous X-ray source X-2 in M82 and archival Chandra observations have given us a good idea of its duty cycle. The newly discovered pulsar exhibited at least 4 super-Eddington outbursts in the past 15 years but, in its lowest-power state, it radiates just below the Eddington limit and its properties appear to be typical of high-mass X-ray binaries. M82 X-2 has been described as a common neutron star with a 1 TG magnetic field that occasionally accretes above the Eddington rate and as a magnetar-like pulsar with a 10-100 TG magnetic field that reaches above the quantum limit. We argue in favor of the former interpretation. Using standard accretion theory and the available observations, we calculate the stellar magnetic field of this pulsar in two independent ways and we show that it cannot exceed 3 TG in either case. We discuss the implications of our results for other ultraluminous X-ray sources that occasionally exhibit similar powerful outbursts.

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“…However, interpretation is not straighforward (Middleton et al 2011) and super-Eddington accretion onto stellar mass black holes like in the case of the wellknown source SS 433 (King et al 2001;Fabrika 2004) might still be an option. Emission from young rotation-powered pulsars (Medvedev & Poutanen 2013) has also been suggested as a possible mechanism powering ULXs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for coherent pulsations in ultraluminous X-ray sources

Doroshenko

Santangelo

Ducci

2015

A&A

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Luminosities of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are uncomfortably large when compared to the Eddington limit for isotropic accretion onto stellar-mass object. Most often either supercritical accretion onto stellar mass black holes or accretion onto intermediate mass black holes is invoked the high luminosities of ULXs. However, the recent discovery of coherent pulsations from ULX M82 X-1 with NuStar has shown 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 bright ULXs with a targeted search for pulsations to check whether accreting neutron stars might power other ULXs as well. We have found no evidence for significant coherent pulsations in any of the sources including the M82 X-2. We provide upper limits for the amplitude of possibly undetected pulsed signals for the sources in the sample.

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Young rotation-powered pulsars as ultraluminous X-ray sources

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

The X-ray Pulsar M82 X-2 on its Propeller Line

Searching for coherent pulsations in ultraluminous X-ray sources

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