Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

A multimission catalogue of ultraluminous X-ray source candidates

Walton, DJ; Mackenzie, ADA; Gully, H; Patel, NR; Roberts, TP; Earnshaw, HP; Mateos, S

A multimission catalogue of ultraluminous X-ray source candidates Thumbnail


Authors

DJ Walton

H Gully

Profile Image

Nency Patel nency.r.patel@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy

HP Earnshaw

S Mateos



Abstract

We present a new, multimission catalogue of ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) candidates, based on recent data releases from each of the XMM–Newton, Swift, and Chandra observatories (the 4XMM-DR10, 2SXPS, and CSC2 catalogues, respectively). This has been compiled by cross-correlating each of these X-ray archives with a large sample of galaxies primarily drawn from the HyperLEDA archive. Significant efforts have been made to clean the sample of known non-ULX contaminants (e.g. foreground stars, background active galactic nuclei, supernovae), and also to identify ULX candidates that are common to the different X-ray catalogues utilized, allowing us to produce a combined ‘master’ list of unique sources. Our sample contains 1843 ULX candidates associated with 951 different host galaxies, making it the largest ULX catalogue compiled to date. Of these, 689 sources are catalogued as ULX candidates for the first time. Our primary motivation is to identify new sources of interest for detailed follow-up studies, and within our catalogue we have already found one new extreme ULX candidate that has high S/N data in the archive: NGC 3044 ULX1. This source has a peak luminosity of LX,peak ∼ 1040 erg s−1, and the XMM–Newton spectrum of the source while at this peak flux is very similar to other, better-studied extreme ULXs that are now understood to be local examples of super-Eddington accretion. This likely indicates that NGC 3044 ULX1 is another source accreting at super-Eddington rates. We expect that this catalogue will be a valuable resource for planning future observations of ULXs – both with our current and future X-ray facilities – to further improve our understanding of this enigmatic population.

Citation

Walton, D., Mackenzie, A., Gully, H., Patel, N., Roberts, T., Earnshaw, H., & Mateos, S. (2022). A multimission catalogue of ultraluminous X-ray source candidates. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 509(2), 1587-1604. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab3001

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 14, 2021
Online Publication Date Oct 20, 2021
Publication Date 2022-01
Deposit Date Mar 18, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 509
Issue 2
Pages 1587-1604
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab3001
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1211177

Files

Accepted Journal Article (2.7 Mb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2021, The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations