Ultraluminous X-ray Sources with the SKA

• Autores: Mar Mezcua , María D. Caballero García , Jorge Casares Velázquez , Omaira Gonzalez Martin, Lorena Hernández García, Ignacio Negueruela Díez , Miguel Ángel Pérez Torres
• Localización: The Spanish Square Kilometre Array White Book / Miguel Ángel Pérez Torres (ed. lit.) , Lourdes Verdes-Montenegro Atalaya (ed. lit.) , José Carlos Guirado (ed. lit.) , Antonio Alberdi Odriozola (ed. lit.) , Jesús Martín-Pintado (ed. lit.) , Rafael Bachiller García (ed. lit.) , Diego Herranz Muñoz (ed. lit.) , Josep Miquel Girart (ed. lit.) , Francisco Javier Gorgas García (ed. lit.) , Carlos Hernández Monteagudo (ed. lit.) , Simone Migliari (ed. lit.), José Miguel Rodríguez Espinosa (ed. lit.) , 2015, ISBN 978-84-606-8955-3, págs. 196-203
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • he discovery almost three decades ago of non-nuclear, point-like X-ray sources with X-ray luminosities LX = 3 × 1039 erg s-1 revolutionized the physics of black hole accretion. If of stellar origin, such Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) would have to accrete at super-Eddington rates in order to reach the observed high X-ray luminosities. Alternatively, ULXs could host sub-Eddington accreting intermediate-mass black holes, which are the long-time sought missing link between stellar and supermassive black holes and the possible seeds of the supermassive black holes that formed in the early Universe. The nature of ULXs can be better investigated in those cases for which a radio counterpart is detected. Radio observations of ULXs have revealed a wide variety of morphologies and source types, from compact and extended jets to radio nebulae and transient behaviours, providing the best observational evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole in some of them. The high sensitivity of the SKA will allow us to study the faintest ULX radio counterparts in the Local Universe as well as to detect new sources at much larger distances. It will thus perform a leap step in understanding ULXs, their accretion physics, and their possible role as seed black holes in supermassive black hole and galaxy growth.