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arXiv · 2201.07242

A Chandra Virgo cluster survey of spiral galaxies. I. Introduction to the survey and a new ULX sample

Roberto Soria·Mari Kolehmainen·Alister W. Graham·Douglas A. Swartz·Mihoko Yukita·Christian Motch·Thomas H. Jarrett·James C. A. Miller-Jones·Richard M. Plotkin·Thomas J. Maccarone·Laura Ferrarese·Alexander Guest·Ariane Lançon
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Abstract

We present an analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) population in 75 Virgo cluster late-type galaxies, including all those with a star formation rate >~ 1 M_{sun}/yr and a representative sample of the less star-forming ones. This study is based on 110 observations obtained over 20 years with the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced Camera for Imaging Spectroscopy. As part of a Large Chandra Program, new observations were obtained for 52 of these 75 galaxies. The data are complete to a sensitivity of about 10^{39} erg/s, with a typical detection limit of about 3 x 10^{38} erg/s for the majority of the sources. The catalogue contains about 80 ULXs (0.3-10 keV luminosity >10^{39} erg/s), and provides their location, observed flux, de-absorbed luminosity, and (for the 25 most luminous ones) simple X-ray spectral properties. We discuss the ULX luminosity function in relation to the mass and star formation rate of the sample galaxies. We show that recent models of low-mass plus high-mass X-ray binary populations (scaling with stellar mass and star formation rate, respectively) are mostly consistent with our observational results. We tentatively identify the most luminous X-ray source in the sample (a source in IC 3322A with L_{X} ~ 6 x 10^{40} erg/s) as a recent supernova or its young remnant. The properties of the sample galaxies (morphologies, stellar masses, star formation rates, total X-ray luminosities from their point-source population) are also summarised.

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Roberto Soria, Mari Kolehmainen, Alister W. Graham, Douglas A. Swartz, Mihoko Yukita, Christian Motch, Thomas H. Jarrett, James C. A. Miller-Jones, Richard M. Plotkin, Thomas J. Maccarone, Laura Ferrarese, Alexander Guest, Ariane Lançon. 2022-01-18. A Chandra Virgo cluster survey of spiral galaxies. I. Introduction to the survey and a new ULX sample. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac148

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