English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are the most extreme members of the X-raybinary population, exhibiting X-ray luminosities that can surpass the 10^39erg/s threshold (by orders of magnitude). They are mainly seen in externalgalaxies and are most preferentially found in star-forming galaxies with lowermetallicities. The vast majority of these systems are now understood to bepowered by super-Eddington accretion of matter onto stellar-mass compactobjects (black holes and neutron stars). This is driven by the discovery ofcoherent pulsations, cyclotron lines and powerful winds in members of the ULXpopulation. The latter was possible thanks to high-resolution X-rayspectrometers such as those aboard XMM-Newton. ULX winds carry a huge amount ofpower owing to their relativistic speeds (0.1-0.3 c) and are likely responsiblefor the ~100 pc superbubbles observed around many ULXs. The winds also regulatethe amount of matter that can reach the central accretor. Their study is,therefore, essential to understanding how quickly compact objects can grow andhow strong their feedback onto the surrounding medium can be. This may also berelevant to understand supermassive black hole growth, particularly in theearly Universe. Here we provide an overview on ULX phenomenology, highlightsome recent exciting results, and show how future missions such as XRISM andATHENA will drive further significant progress in this field.

Ultra-luminous X-ray sources: extreme accretion and feedback