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Ultra-luminous X-ray sources: extreme accretion and feedback

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arxiv 2302.00006 v1 pith:3KIRUE2O submitted 2023-01-31 astro-ph.HE astro-ph.IM

Ciro Pinto , Dominic J. Walton This is my paper · ORCID
classification astro-ph.HEastro-ph.IM
keywords x-raywindsaccretionamountblackcompactextremefeedback
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Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are the most extreme members of the X-ray binary population, exhibiting X-ray luminosities that can surpass the 10^39 erg/s threshold (by orders of magnitude). They are mainly seen in external galaxies and are most preferentially found in star-forming galaxies with lower metallicities. The vast majority of these systems are now understood to be powered by super-Eddington accretion of matter onto stellar-mass compact objects (black holes and neutron stars). This is driven by the discovery of coherent pulsations, cyclotron lines and powerful winds in members of the ULX population. The latter was possible thanks to high-resolution X-ray spectrometers such as those aboard XMM-Newton. ULX winds carry a huge amount of power owing to their relativistic speeds (0.1-0.3 c) and are likely responsible for the ~100 pc superbubbles observed around many ULXs. The winds also regulate the amount of matter that can reach the central accretor. Their study is, therefore, essential to understanding how quickly compact objects can grow and how strong their feedback onto the surrounding medium can be. This may also be relevant to understand supermassive black hole growth, particularly in the early Universe. Here we provide an overview on ULX phenomenology, highlight some recent exciting results, and show how future missions such as XRISM and ATHENA will drive further significant progress in this field.

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Forward citations

Cited by 8 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. A NuSTAR study of quasi-periodic oscillations from the ultraluminous X-ray sources in M82

    astro-ph.HE 2025-05 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    A 10-year NuSTAR campaign characterizes the 20-300 mHz QPO of M82 X-1, associates it with the source via Chandra, finds no 3-5 Hz twin QPOs, and argues the QPO is not a reliable black-hole mass indicator.

  2. The hunt for new pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources: a clustering approach

    astro-ph.HE 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A Gaussian mixture model clustering of 1,769 ULX observations yields 85 new candidate pulsating ULXs with properties similar to the six known pulsating ULXs.

  3. A new pulsating neutron star in the Ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 4559 X7?

    astro-ph.HE 2025-02 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    NGC 4559 X7 shows a marginal 2.6-2.7 second pulsation candidate in two XMM-Newton observations, which if confirmed would reveal an extreme spin-down neutron star ULX.

  4. Spectral Insights and Evolutionary Pathways of Globular Cluster ULX in NGC 1399: A Two-Decade X-ray and Optical Study

    astro-ph.HE 2025-01 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    GCU7, a bright X-ray and optical source in a globular cluster in NGC 1399, is best explained as a young neutron star accreting from a helium white dwarf, not an intermediate-mass black hole tidally disrupting a star.

  5. Unveiling the nature of donor stars of ULXs in NGC 1559

    astro-ph.HE 2025-01 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In NGC 1559, four ULXs now have identified optical companions, with X-14 and X-24 emission coming from donor stars and X-1 and X-18 from accretion disks.

  6. High Power Accretion in Massive Binary Systems and the Impact of Metallicity

    astro-ph.SR 2025-09 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Higher-metallicity massive stars show larger accretion-driven luminosity increases despite being more extended, and flip to a cool inflated state at lower accretion rates than low-metallicity stars.

  7. A Synthetic Population of Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources: Optical-X-ray Correlation

    astro-ph.HE 2025-01 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Simulated ULX populations reproduce the observed alpha_ox-L_UV anti-correlation, with BH-ULX slopes varying with metallicity, NS-ULX slopes near -0.33, and beaming flattening both the XLF and the correlation slope.

  8. Physics of Strong Magnetism with eXTP

    astro-ph.HE 2025-06 unverdicted novelty 3.0 of 10

    The eXTP mission's planned instruments would enable more sensitive X-ray polarization and timing observations of magnetars and accreting pulsars, potentially testing vacuum birefringence and probing magnetic field structures.

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