Spectral variability of ultraluminous X-ray sources
- Department of Physical Sciences, Astronomy division, P.O. Box 3000, 90014 University of Oulu (Finland)
We study spectral variability of 11 ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) using archived XMM-Newton and Chandra observations. We use three models to describe the observed spectra; a power-law, a multi-colour disk (MCD) and a combination of these two models. We find that out of the 11 ULXs in our sample, 7 ULXs show a correlation between the luminosity and the photon index {gamma}(hereafter L--{gamma} correlation). Furthermore, out of the 7 ULXs that have the L--{gamma} correlation, 4 ULXs also show spectral pivoting in the observed energy band. We also find that two ULXs show an L--{gamma} anti-correlation. The spectra of 4 ULXs in the sample can be adequately fitted with a MCD model. We compare these sources to known black hole binaries (BHB) and find that they follow similar paths in their luminosity-temperature (hereafter L--T) diagrams. Finally we show that the 'soft excess' reported for many of these ULXs at {approx}0.2 keV seem to follow a trend L {proportional_to} T{sup -4} when modeled with a power-law plus a 'cool' MCD model. This is contrary to the expected L {proportional_to} T{sup 4} relation that is expected from theory and what is seen for many accreting BHBs.
- OSTI ID:
- 21251428
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1054, Issue 1; Conference: Astrophysics conference on cool discs, hot flows: the varying faces of accreting compact objects, Funaesdalen (Sweden), 25-30 Mar 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3002507; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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