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X-ray observations of ultraluminous X-ray sources

Timothy P. Roberts

2016

106 citations

Abstract

the most intriguing of X-ray source classes. Their extreme luminosities—greater than 1039 erg s−1 in the 0.3–10 keV band alone—suggest either the presence of black holes larger than those regularly encountered in our own Galaxy (the Galactic centre excepted), or sources apparently radiat-ing well above the Eddington limit. We review the insights afforded us by studies of their X-ray emission, focussing on what this reveals about the underlying compact object. In particular, we discuss recent deep observations of ULXs by the XMM-Newton observatory, and how the unprecedented data quality provided by this mission is starting to discrim-inate between the different physical models for these extra-ordinary X-ray emitters.

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