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.
- Publication:
-
Astrophysical Bulletin
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2105.10537
- Bibcode:
- 2021AstBu..76....6F
- Keywords:
-
- X-rays: binaries;
- accretion;
- accretion disks;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 32 pages, 21 figures, 1 table