Ultraluminous X-Ray Binaries
Kristen C. Dage, Konstantinos Kovlakas
TL;DR
Ultraluminous X-ray binaries are extreme accreting systems that challenge existing models, with recent discoveries revealing neutron star and black hole accretors across diverse environments, impacting multiple astrophysical fields.
Contribution
This chapter reviews observational methods and current understanding of ULXs' accretion physics and formation, highlighting recent advances and new insights.
Findings
ULXs can be powered by accreting neutron stars and black holes.
ULXs are found in diverse stellar environments.
Understanding of ULX physics has significantly advanced in 35 years.
Abstract
Ultraluminous X-ray binaries have challenged our assumptions of extreme accretion rates in X-ray binaries, and impact other subfields of astronomy, such as cosmology, gravitational wave sources and supernov{\ae}. Our understanding of ULXs has changed tremendously over the last 35 years, and we now know that ULXs can be powered by accreting neutron stars as well as black holes, and can be found in a wide range of stellar environments. In this chapter, we introduce the observational techniques used to discover and characterize ULXs, and discuss our current understanding of their unique accretion physics and formation channels.
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Taxonomy
TopicsAdvanced X-ray Imaging Techniques · Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations · Crystallography and Radiation Phenomena