Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

Abstract

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) were identified as a separate class of objects in 2000 based on data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. These are unique objects: their X-ray luminosities exceed the Eddington limit for a typical stellar-mass black hole. For a long time, the nature of ULXs remained unclear. However, the gradual accumulation of data, new results of X-ray and optical spectroscopy, and the study of the structure and energy of nebulae surrounding ULXs led to the understanding that most of the ultraluminous X-ray sources must be supercritical accretion disks like SS 433. The discovery of neutron stars in a number of objects only increased the confidence of the scientific community in the conclusions obtained, since the presence of neutron stars in such systems clearly indicates a supercritical accretion regime. In this review, we systematize the main facts about the observational manifestations of ULXs and SS 433 in the X-ray and optical ranges and discuss their explanation from the point of view of the supercritical accretion theory.

arXiv comment32 pages, 21 figures, 1 table

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• MUSE spectroscopy of the ULX NGC 1313 X-1: a shock-ionised bubble, an X-ray photoionised nebula, and two supernova remnants
• Formation of Mass-gap Black Holes from Neutron Star X-ray Binaries with Super-Eddington Accretion
• First direct dynamical detection of a dual supermassive black hole system at sub-kiloparsec separation
• Bright X-ray Pulsars: how outflows influence beaming, pulsations and pulse phase lags
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• X-Ray Bright Active Galactic Nuclei in Local Dwarf Galaxies: Insights from eROSITA
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• Evolution of the spin, spectrum and super-orbital period of the ultraluminous X-ray pulsar M51 ULX7
• Comparing the Super-Eddington accretion of SMC X-3 and RX J0209.6-7427 with Swift J0243.6+6124
• Bright X-ray pulsars as sources of MeV neutrinos in the sky
• Exploring the nature of ultra-luminous X-ray sources across stellar population ages using detailed binary evolution calculations
• An X-ray fading, UV brightening QSO at $z\approx 6$
• Optical Counterparts of ULXs in NGC 1672
• NuSTAR and XMM-Newton observations of the binary 4FGL J1405.1-6119. A $\gamma$-ray emitting microquasar?
• Winds in ultraluminous X-ray sources: new challenges
• Spectral Evolution of Ultraluminous X-ray Pulsar NGC 300 ULX-1
• Simultaneous NICER and NuSTAR observations of the Ultraluminous source NGC 4190 ULX-1
• Neutrino beaming in ultraluminous X-ray pulsars as a result of gravitational lensing by neutron stars
• GR-RMHD Simulations of Super-Eddington Accretion Flows onto a Neutron Star with Dipole and Quadrupole Magnetic Fields
• Ultraluminous X-ray sources with He star companions
• Mean opacities of a strongly magnetized high temperature plasma
• The largest bright ULX population in a galaxy: X-ray variability and Luminosity Function in the Cartwheel ring Galaxy
• The High Energy X-ray Probe (HEX-P): Studying Extreme Accretion with Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Populations of ultraluminous X-ray sources in galaxies: origin and evolution
• The hunt for new pulsating ultraluminous X-ray sources: a clustering approach
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• Spectral analysis of ultraluminous X-ray pulsars with models of X-ray pulsars
• The variability behavior of NGC 925 ULX-3
• The restless population of bright X-ray sources of NCG 3621
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• Comprehensive X-ray and Multiwavelength Study of ULXs in NGC 1566
• Monte-Carlo simulations on possible collimation effects of outflows to fan-beamed emission of ultraluminous accreting X-ray pulsars
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• Optical Counterparts of Two Candidate Ultraluminous X-ray Sources in NGC 4536
• Possible optical counterparts of ULXs in NGC 1672
• Ultraluminous X-ray sources in the first eROSITA survey I. Candidate catalogs