Ultraluminous X-ray sources in seven edge-on spiral galaxies

ABSTRACT We investigate a sample of seven edge-on spiral galaxies using Chandra observations. Edge-on spiral galaxies allow us to clearly separate source associated with their star-forming regions versus the outer edges of the system, offering a clear advantage over other systems. We uncover a numbe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2021-12, Vol.508 (3), p.4008-4016
Main Authors: Dage, Kristen C, Vowell, Noah, Thygesen, Erica, Bahramian, Arash, Haggard, Daryl, Kovlakas, Konstantinos, Kundu, Arunav, Maccarone, Thomas J, Strader, Jay, Urquhart, Ryan, Zepf, Stephen E
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:ABSTRACT We investigate a sample of seven edge-on spiral galaxies using Chandra observations. Edge-on spiral galaxies allow us to clearly separate source associated with their star-forming regions versus the outer edges of the system, offering a clear advantage over other systems. We uncover a number of X-ray point sources across these galaxies, and after eliminating contaminating foreground and background sources, we identify 12 candidate ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). All of these sources are projected on to the central regions, implying that the majority of ULXs in this sample of spiral galaxies are disc/bulge, and thus not halo sources. This also includes two transient ULXs, which may be long-duration transients and low-mass X-ray binaries. This finding illustrates the need for further studies of transient ULXs.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stab2850