X-Ray Properties of the Point Source Population in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5055 (M63) with Chandra

Using Chandra ACIS S3 data we studied the X-ray properties of low-and highmass X-ray binary populations in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5055. A total of 43 X-ray point sources were detected within two effective radii, with 31 sources located on the disk and the rest 12 sources in the bulge. The resolved point sources dominate the X-ray emission of the galaxy, accounting for about 80% of the total counts in 0.3-10keV. From spectral fittings we calculated the 0.3-10.0keV luminosities of all the detected X-ray point sources and found that they span a wide range from a few times 10^37 erg s^-1 to over 10^39 erg s^-1. After compensating for incompleteness at the low luminosity end, we found that the corrected XLF of the bulge population is well fitted with a broken power-law with a break at 1.57-0.20^＋0.21 1038 erg s^-1, while the profile of the disk population＇s XLF agrees with a single powerlaw distribution of slope 0 9-0.06^＋0.07 The disk population is significantly richer at ≥ 2 × 10^38 erg s^- 1 than the bulge population, indicating that the disk may have undergone relatively recent, strong starbursts that significantly increased the HMXB population, although ongoing starbursts are also observed in the nuclear region. Similar XLF profiles of the bulge and disk populations were found in M81. However, in most other spiral galaxies different patterns of spatial variation of the XLF profiles from the bulge to the disk have been observed, indicating that the star formation and evolution history may be more complex than we have expected.

Populations of Bright X-ray Sources in the Starburst Galaxies NGC 4038/4039

Assuming a naive star formation history, we construct synthetic X-ray source populations, using a population synthesis code, for comparison with the observed X-ray luminosity function （XLF） of the interacting galaxies NGC 4038/4039. We have included highand intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, young rotation-powered pulsars and fallback disk-fed black holes in modeling the bright X-ray sources detected. We find that the majority of the X-ray sources are likely to be intermediate-mass X-ray binaries, but for typical binary evolu- tion parameters, the predicted XLF seems to be steeper than observed. We note that the shape of the XLFs depends critically on the existence of XLF break for young populations, and suggest super-Eddington accretion luminosities or the existence of intermediate-mass black holes to account for the high luminosity end and the slope of the XLF in NGC 4038/4039.

The Great Pretenders Among the ULX Class

The recent discoveries of pulsed X-ray emission from three ultraluminous X-ray （ULX） sources have finally enabled us to recognize a subclass within the ULX class： the great pretenders, neutron stars （NSs） that appear to emit X-ray radiation at isotropic luminosities Lx = 7 × 10^39 erg s-1 _ 1 ×10^41 erg s-i only because their emissions are strongly beamed toward our direction and our sight lines are offset by only a few degrees from their magnetic-dipole axes. The three known pretenders appear to be stronger emitters than the presumed black holes of the ULX class, such as Holmberg II ＆ IX X-1, IC10 X-1 and NGC 300 X-1. For these three NSs, we have adopted a single reasonable assumption, that their brightest observed outbursts unfold at the Eddington rate, and we have calculated both their propeller states and their surface magnetic-field magnitudes. We find that the results are not at all different from those recently obtained for the Magellanic Be/X-ray pulsars： the three NSs reveal modest magnetic fields of about 0.3-0.4TG and beamed propeller-line X-ray luminosities of 1036 - 1037 erg s-1, substantially below the Eddington limit.