Supercritical Accretion Discs in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources and SS 433

TL;DR

This paper suggests that ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are a homogeneous class of objects with supercritical accretion discs, characterized by hot winds similar to SS 433, explaining their optical spectra and high luminosities.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ULX optical spectra originate from hot winds of supercritical accretion discs, not stellar donors, linking ULXs to SS 433 and proposing a homogeneous class of supercritical accretors.

Findings

ULX spectra resemble those of SS 433 but with higher wind temperatures.

Optical spectra are from hot winds, not stellar donors.

ULXs likely have supercritical accretion discs.

Abstract

The black hole mass and accretion rate in Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies, whose X-ray luminosities exceed those of the brightest black holes in our Galaxy by hundreds and thousands of times$^{1,2}$, is an unsolved problem. Here we report that all ULXs ever spectroscopically observed have about the same optical spectra apparently of WNL type (late nitrogen Wolf-Rayet stars) or LBV (luminous blue variables) in their hot state, which are very scarce stellar objects. We show that the spectra do not originate from WNL/LBV type donors but from very hot winds from the accretion discs with nearly normal hydrogen content, which have similar physical conditions as the stellar winds from these stars. The optical spectra are similar to that of SS 433, the only known supercritical accretor in our Galaxy$^{3}$, although the ULX spectra indicate a higher wind temperature. Our results suggest that ULXs with X-ray luminosities of $\sim 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ must constitute a homogeneous class of objects, which most likely have supercritical accretion discs.