Master's Thesis Abbas Askar

University of Padova Department of Physics and Astronomy
Optical Counterparts of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

Abbas Askar Supervisor: Dr. Luca Zampieri Local Coordinator: Prof. Luigi Secco Master Thesis for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Course in Astronomy and Astrophysics
24th September 2012
University of Padova Department of Physics and Astronomy
Optical Counterparts of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

Abbas Askar Supervisor: Dr. Luca Zampieri Local Coordinator: Prof. Luigi Secco Master Thesis for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Course in Astronomy and Astrophysics
24th September 2012
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
-Richard Rorty
To my parents and my younger brother
Abstract
An interesting discovery in the eld of X-ray astronomy was the existence of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs). The majority of these sources are posited to be non-nuclear accreting black hole binaries with luminosities exceeding the Eddington luminosity for a stellar mass black hole ( 10M ). These sources are extragalactic and have typical luminosities greater than 1039 erg s1 . A key unresolved physical issue in the understanding of ULX phenomenology is whether they are powered by normal stellar mass black holes or massive stellar black holes or Intermediate mass black holes (IMBH). In this thesis, the emission properties of Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are modelled and their optical luminosity (including eects of X-ray irradiation) is computed. The evolutionary tracks for ULX binary systems with high-mass companion stars and stellar through massive black holes (20 M and 100M ) are plotted on a colour-magnitude diagram. These plots are then compared with the positions of optical counterparts for 13 ULXs recently studied using the HST by Tao et al. (2011). We constrain the mass of the black hole and companion by comparing the stellar evolutionary tracks of ULXs with the photometric properties of their optical counterparts on the colour-magnitude diagram for the 13 ULXs with accurate photometric data. Furthermore, in this thesis, a general discussion of ULXs is provided, the details of modelling their optical luminosity is also given along with the results of the study.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family for all their love and support. I am particularly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Luca Zampieri for introducing me to the topic of ULXs, and for his advice and support in preparing and carrying out this study. I would also like to thank Prof. Luigi Secco for all his support and help with the administrative issues at the University of Padova. I am also grateful to organizers of the Astromundus Masters program and all the instructors and local coordinators at the partner universities of Innsbruck, Belgrade and Padova. I am grateful for all the support provided by Ammar Askar in helping me with the coding and LaTeX output of the thesis. Lastly, I am also very thankful for all the support given to me by my friends and colleagues.
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Table of Contents
Abstract Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 1.1 Brief Introduction to ULXs . . . . 1.2 Motivation to study ULXs . . . . . 1.3 Background & Aims of this Thesis 1.4 Contents of the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
i iii 1 2 4 5 6 7 7 10 11 14 15 16 18 22 23 26 26 28 28 30 31 33 35 35 38 40 41 42 44 45
2.0 ULX Phenomenology 2.1 X-ray Emission from ULXs . . . . . . . . 2.2 Models of ULXs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Emission Scenarios . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Ordinary Stellar Mass Black Holes 2.2.3 Massive Stellar Black Holes . . . . 2.2.4 Intermediate Mass Black Holes . . 2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs . . 2.4 ULX Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Optical Counterparts of ULXs . . . . . . .
3.0 Modelling the Optical Emission from ULXs 3.1 The Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Computing the Optical Luminosity . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Initial Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 X-ray Irradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Computing Total Luminosity . . . . . . 3.3 Binary Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.0 Observational Data for Optical Counterparts 4.1 Counterparts of 13 ULXs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 Holmberg II X-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Holmberg IX X-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 IC 342 X-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.4 M81 ULS1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.5 M81 X-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.6 M83 IXO 82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.7 M101 ULX-1 . . . 4.1.8 NGC 1313 X-2 . . 4.1.9 NGC 4559 X-7 . . 4.1.10 NGC 5204 X-1 . . 4.1.11 NGC 5408 X-1 . . 4.1.12 NGC 6946 ULX-1 4.1.13 NGC 2403 X-1 . . 4.2 Table of Photometric Data
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46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 58 59 59 61 63 63 65 67 67 69 71 81 83
5.0 Results 5.1 Sources with Nebular Extinction . . . 5.1.1 Results for a 20M Black Hole 5.1.2 Results for a 100M Black Hole 5.2 Sources with Galactic Extinction . . . 5.2.1 Results for a 20M Black Hole 5.2.2 Results for a 100M Black Hole 5.3 Modied Albedo Parameter . . . . . . 5.3.1 Results for M101 ULX-1 . . . . 5.3.2 Results for M83 IXO 82 . . . . 6.0 Discussion of the Results 7.0 Conclusions Bibliography
1. Introduction
In this section, a brief history of X-ray astronomy is discussed and the topic of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) is introduced. The section also provides the motivation for the thesis and explains its structure and contents. Due to advancements in observations in X-ray astronomy and astrophysics during the past fty years, many interesting objects which are sources of X-rays have been discovered. Observations of these X-ray sources has elucidated the nature of diverse astrophysical objects that include stars, supernova remnants, compact objects, binary systems, active galactic nuclei and galaxy clusters. Furthermore, X-ray astronomy has been essential in our understanding of high-energy astrophysical phenomena which occurs under extreme physical conditions. X-rays are high energy electromagnetic radiation and the energies of photons in this band are between 102 eV and 105 eV. These energies correspond to wavelengths between 10-0.01 nm. X-rays of energies between 100 eV to 10 keV are categorized as soft X-rays whereas energies between 10 keV to 100 keV are referred to as hard X-rays. The potential and scope of X-ray astronomy was realized in the early 1970s with the launch of the UHURU satellite. This was the rst dedicated X-ray observatory that mapped the X-ray sky (Giacconi et al. 1972). Since UHURU, many advanced X-ray space telescopes with better angular and energy resolution have been launched. Prominent active X-ray observatory satellites are XMM-Newton observatory, Chandra X-ray Observatory (Brickhouse 2000) and Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT). X-ray observatories have to be space based as the atmosphere of the Earth is opaque to X-rays due to photoelectric absorption by atoms that make up the gas in the atmosphere. Observations have shown that the X-ray sky is dominated by point sources of strongly varying brightness on short scales (Longair 2011). X-ray continuum radiation can be produced by various radiative processes like bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering. The emission from X-ray sources can be classied into thermal and non-thermal emission. Non-thermal X-ray emission is prevalent in more unusual objects like supernovas, accretion disk powered systems and compact objects. In this thesis, the main objects of study are Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). As the name suggests, these are incredibly bright X-ray emitting objects. A brief introduction to ULXs is provided in the next section.
1.1 Brief Introduction to ULXs

The high energy radiation from relativistic accreting systems heavily populates the Xray Universe. An interesting discovery in the eld of X-ray astronomy was the existence of extragalactic point-like sources which emit at luminosities higher than 1039 erg s1 . These sources are known as Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) and the majority of them are posited to be accreting binary systems in which the compact object is a black hole. Theoretically, the maximum luminosity of an accreting compact object is around the Eddington luminosity. This is the luminosity at which the outward-directed radiation force is balanced by the inward-directed gravitational force. The Eddington luminosity for a pure Hydrogen gas is given in equation 1
LEdd =
4cGM mp M 1.38 1038 ( )erg s1 T M
(1)
where T is the Thomson scattering cross section, M is the black hole mass and mp is the proton mass. The luminosities of ULXs indicate that the mass of the accreting object has to be higher than a ten solar mass black hole. Typically, ULXs have bolometric luminosities above the Eddington limit for a 20M black hole which is considered to be a mass limit for a stellar mass black hole considering standard stellar evolution. The true nature of ULXs is still unclear and it is likely that they are a composite class of several dierent types of objects (Kolb 2010; Feng & Soria 2011). Few ULXs (with apparent luminosities in excess of 1039 erg s1 ) were rst observed during the 1980s by the Einstein satellite in nearby star forming galaxies (Long & van Speybroeck 1983; Feng & Soria 2011). Due to the relatively low spatial resolution of the Einstein satellite, it was hard to distinguish these sources from Galactic stellar mass black hole candidates. Furthermore, long-term monitoring of these sources was not possible which made it dicult to dierentiate between persistently luminous sources and transient events like young supernovae (Feng & Soria 2011). With the launch of X-ray satellites like ROSAT and ASCA in the following decade, ULXs became more distinguishable sources. Better resolution and spectral coverage of these X-ray satellites showed that some of these sources were non-nuclear and could not be supernova events.
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Furthermore, it also became clear that the apparent luminosities of these sources were much higher than the Eddington limit for known stellar mass black holes. Observations from ROSAT also showed that the ULXs are prevalent extragalactic objects and are present in galaxies with dierent types of morphologies. The ASCA satellite had a wider spectral coverage and sensitivity and the data pointed towards these sources being accretion powered systems with very high temperatures (Feng & Soria 2011). The number of known ULXs increased considerably with data from ASCA and ROSAT and the rst surveys of these sources were made possible. The improved data also allowed for reliable spectral analysis of these sources and dierent models have been proposed and tested to explain their high luminosities. More than two decades after the launch of Einstein, signicant progress has been made by the latest X-ray observatories XMM-Newton and Chandra. These X-ray observatories have a much higher spectral and angular resolution than any of their predecessors. Figure 1, shows a composite X-ray image of the spiral galaxy M74 with a ULX highlighted. This image was produced from the data provided by Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Figure 1: This is a composite X-ray (red)/optical (blue & white) image of the spiral galaxy M74 made using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. An ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in this galaxy is shown in the box (NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory 2005)
With the high angular resolution of current X-ray missions like Chandra, many Xray point sources have been resolved for the rst time. These studies have allowed for better cataloguing and testing of various models that explain the high luminosities of ULXs. It is now possible to study multiwavelegnth counterparts of ULXs. Moreover, data from new missions has also been useful in allowing intensive modelling of X-ray spectral and timing properties of ULXs. In Section 2 of the thesis, the phenomenology
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1.2 Motivation to study ULXs
of ULXs is discussed in more detail.
1.2 Motivation to study ULXs

The main motivation to study ULXs is to explain the possible mechanism that could result in such high apparently isotropic luminosities. ULXs are posited to be accreting systems and if their luminosities are higher than the Eddington limit for accreting stellar mass black holes then an alternative model is required to explain the nature of these sources. Considering all the observational data and theoretical possibilities, there are three posited models for ULXs. 1. They could be an ultra-powerful X-ray binary with a stellar-mass black hole accreting at highly super-Eddington rates (King et al. 2001; Begelman 2002). 2. The compact object in the binary system is an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) with a mass higher than 100M (Colbert & Mushotzky 1999). 3. The compact object in ULXs are massive stellar black holes( 30 80M ) that were formed from the evolution of massive stars in low metallicity environments (Mapelli et al. 2009; Zampieri & Roberts 2009; Belczynski et al. 2010). It is also possible that the most luminous ULXs may be explained by a combination of all three predominant models that account for such high luminosities (Feng & Soria 2011). The details of these models are discussed in the second section of the thesis. Regardless of their exact nature, ULXs are of great interest in astrophysics because if the accreting black holes in some of these sources do have a mass between 102 103 M then ULXs could be a new class of astrophysical objects, possibly unconnected with the evolution of the normal stellar population of a galaxy. ULXs could represent a new type of black hole population which bridges the gap between stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes found at the centre of galaxies. The very high luminosity of some ULXs ( 1041 erg s1 ) along with their cool disks point towards the IMBH model (Feng & Soria 2011). The main problem of this model is the formation mechanism of such an extreme object. It has been hypothesized that these black holes could be the remnants of collapsed primordial stars in the early universe or they could have formed in the core collapse of young dense stellar clusters. Even though our understanding of ULXs has been greatly advanced by new X-ray telescopes, the current observational X-ray data alone does not allow us to clearly distinguish whether ULXs are powered
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1.3 Background & Aims of this Thesis
by IMBH or normal stellar mass black holes. Attempts to directly measure the mass of a ULX compact object by studying the motion of a companion star have been unsuccessful. This makes it important to carry out multi-wavelength studies of ULXs to nd indirect clues regarding the properties of ULX systems. It is important to be able to constrain and determine the mass of the black hole being hosted by ULXs in order to conclusively determine whether they are being powered by an intermediate mass black hole. This thesis aims at using available photometric data for optical counterparts of ULXs in order to constrain the mass of the black hole in ULXs. An introduction to the method that will be employed in order to do this is given in the next subsection.
1.3 Background & Aims of this Thesis

In the previous section it was discussed that ULXs are binary systems in which there is a donor star accreting onto a black hole. It was also established that the main motivation of this project is to be able to constrain the mass of the black hole using available photometric data for the optical counterparts of ULXs. In two studies by Patruno & Zampieri entitled, Optical emission from massive donors in ultraluminous X-ray source binary systems (2008) and The black hole in NGC 1313 X-2: constraints on the mass from optical observations (2010) the mass of the black hole and donor in the ULX was constrained by computing stellar evolutionary tracks of ULX counterparts on the colour-magnitude diagram and then comparing them to available photometric data. This thesis uses the same method to constrain black hole masses and uses new photometric data available for optical counterparts obtained using HST data by Tao et al. (2011). More specically, the aims of this project are to model the emission properties of ULXs and compute their optical luminosity (including eects of X-ray irradiation) (Patruno & Zampieri 2008). We then try to constrain the mass of the black hole in the ULX by comparing the computed stellar evolutionary tracks of ULXs with the photometric properties of their optical counterparts on the colour-magnitude diagram for 13 known ULXs with accurate photometric data (Tao et al. 2011). Optical counterpart refers to the point-like optical source that is spatially associated with the ULX. The optical emission from the counterpart arises from the donor star or outer accretion disk, or both. This optical emission gives interesting information about the nature of the donor star, binary evolution history, disk geometry, mode of mass transfer and can help
5
1.4 Contents of the Thesis
to constrain the black hole mass. The evolutionary tracks of binary systems with high mass companion stars and stellar to IMBH are computed using a modied version of Eggleton code for stellar evolution (Patruno & Zampieri 2008; 2010).
1.4 Contents of the Thesis
The rst chapter of this thesis aims at briey introducing the topic of Ultraluminous X-ray sources and puts forth the background, motivation and the aims of this thesis. The second chapter on ULX Phenomenology goes into the theoretical details of ULXs and discusses the X-ray emission from ULXs, various models and factors that could explain their high luminosities, observations of ULX counterparts and the environment around ULXs. The third chapter entitled Modelling the Emission Properties of ULX Binary Systems provides a detailed account of the method that was employed in order to model and compute the optical luminosities from ULX sources. It discusses the various conditions and assumptions for our ULX model and describes how the modied Eggleton code is used to produce stellar evolutionary tracks. The fourth chapter summarizes the details of the available photometric data of 13 known ULXs that were studied by Tao et al. In the fth chapter, the computational results explained in chapter 3 and the observational data from chapter 4 are combined in order to constrain the black hole mass for the 13 ULXs. These results are summarized and discussed in chapter 6. A summary and conclusions of the project are given in the nal chapter of the thesis.
2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY
2.0 ULX Phenomenology
In chapter 1, the topic of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) was briey introduced. In this chapter the details of the X-ray emission from ULXs will be discussed and their main properties will be described. The models that are used to account for the high Xray luminosities of these sources are also explained. The X-ray spectra and variability of ULXs are also discussed along with information related to the optical counterparts and environments of these sources.
2.1 X-ray Emission from ULXs
In the rst chapter, ULXs were introduced as being very bright X-ray sources that have apparent bolometric luminosities higher than the Eddington limit for stellar mass black holes. The Eddington limit can be applied to any accreting system to limit the maximum theoretical luminosity that it could have. The Eddington limit is calculated by setting the gravitational force equal to the radiative force acting on an atom. In equation 1, the Eddington luminosity for fully ionized hydrogen was dened. If the mass of the black hole in the accreting system is 10M then the Eddington luminosity of the system is 1.38 1039 ergs1 . Generally, ULXs are dened as non-nuclear, point like objects which have at least once been observed at an apparent isotropic luminosity which is higher than Lx > 1039 erg s1 (maximum luminosity of a stellar mass Galactic black hole) in the 0.3-10 KeV band (Feng & Soria 2011). Some authors dene the luminosity for ULXs to be higher than 3 1039 erg s1 , which is the Eddington limit of the most massive stellar black holes (20M ) with standard metallicity (Belczynski et al. 2010; Feng & Soria 2011; Kaaret 2008). This denition excludes a large number of ULXs that have faint luminosities (less than 3 1039 erg s1 ) by designating them to be normal black hole binaries. However, as Feng & Soria (2011) point out, an empirical denition for ULXs
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is ambiguous as it may include objects such as X-ray pulsars, supernovae and supernova remnants. In order to avoid this ambiguity, ULXs can more specically be dened as non-nuclear accreting black holes with peak luminosities inferred assuming isotropic emission above the Eddington limit of a normal stellar mass black hole (Feng & Soria 2011). Using this denition, ULXs are limited to being binary systems in which a compact object is accreting from a companion star. For the purpose of this study, we use a denition of ULX given by Patruno & Zampieri (2008). ULX is dened by Patruno & Zampieri (2008) as a source which has a bolometric luminosity greater than the Eddington limit for a stellar mass black hole of 20M and is less luminous than 1041 ergs1 . This denition rules out Galactic X-ray binaries radiating isotropically as ULXs. The upper luminosity limit for observed ULX is 1042 erg s1 (corresponding to the lower luminosities observed for active galactic nuclei which are powered by a super massive black hole). The brightest ULXs typically have a luminosity of 1041 erg s1 (Sutton et al. 2012). One source can reach a maximum luminosity of 1042 erg s1 and is the best IMBH candidate to date (Farrell et al. 2009). A composite X-ray and optical image (from Chandra and HST ) of the ULX in M83 is shown in the right panel of Figure 2. The light curve of M101 ULX-1 on 2 dierent dates in separate energy bands is shown in Figure 3 (Mukai et al. 2005).
Figure 2: On the left panel is an optical image of M83 (or NGC 5236) from the Very Large Telescope( VLT ) in Chile. On the right panel is a composite image (showing X-ray data from Chandra in pink and optical data from the HST in blue and yellow) of a zoomed portion of this barred spiral galaxy. The prominent X-ray source in the marked box near the bottom of the composite image is a highly variable ULX (NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory 2012).
Figure 3: Chandra ACIS-S light curve of M101 ULX-1 on 2004 December 30 (in 648 s bins) and on 2005 January 1 (256 s bins), in two energy bins (taken from Mukai et al. 2005).
Observations of ULXs reveal that they are very diverse sources, few ULXs exhibit strong X-ray variability over time scales of a few minutes. While many other ULXs show random variations over time scales which range from weeks, days to years (Zampieri et al. 2004; Kaaret & Feng 2009; Kong et al. 2010; Gris et al. 2010). The observed e variability of ULXs conrms their compact nature. Moreover, variability information is required to dene a ULX, as objects which are not black hole binaries may appear to be ULXs if timing and multiwavelength properties of those sources are not available. Young supernovae events can have X-ray luminosities in the order of 1040 erg s1 (Feng & Soria 2011). Mostly, distinguishing between such events and ULXs requires one to know the variability of such sources (Kaaret 2008). However, in certain cases this is not enough and a detailed study of the X-ray spectra is required to elucidate the true nature of these sources.ULXs exhibit a composite X-ray spectrum which is similar but not equal to that of Galactic X-ray binaries (XRBs) (Foschini et al. 2002a; Zampieri & Roberts 2009). The X-ray spectum of a bright ULXs shows a typical rollover above 3-5 keV and is described in terms of a two component model, a low temperature disk and an optically thick corona at high energies (Gladstone et al. 2009). Another problem with observing ULXs is that background active galactic nuclei (AGN) that are located behind a galaxy could be misidentied as ULXs in that galaxy (Feng & Soria 2011). The cosmological location of such souces may be veried by
2.2 Models of ULXs
measuring the redshift from optical lines (Clark et al. 2005), this can allow one to determine whether the source is in the galaxy being studied or in the background. The number of background objects that contaminate ULX sources are higher in massive elliptical galaxies (Feng & Soria 2011). Many ULXs in spiral or starburst galaxies are spatially associated with young star clusters, emission nebulae and star forming regions (Zampieri et al. 2004; Gris et al. 2008, 2011). Such sources are most likely to be e located within the galaxy being studied rather than the background or the foreground (Feng & Soria 2011). The environments of ULXs are discussed in a separate section in this chapter. Few models and scenarios have been developed to explain the high luminosities of ULXs. These emission models and more details of the X-ray emission from ULXs are discussed in the next subsection of this chapter.
2.2 Models of ULXs
It has been discussed that ULXs have luminosities higher than the Eddington luminosity for typical stellar mass black holes. This implies that they are sources which are dierent from typical Galactic X-ray binaries. In this section, the dierent emission scenarios for ULXs are discussed. In the rst subsection of this section, the general emission scenarios that could possibly explain the high luminosities of ULXs are discussed. In the subsequent subsections, dierent types of the black hole masses that could power them will be discussed individually. These black hole types are distinguished by their mass ranges and they are 1. Ordinary Stellar Mass Black Hole (M 2. Massive Stellar Black Hole (20M M 20M ) 100M )
3. Intermediate Mass Black Holes (M 102 104 M )
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2.2 Models of ULXs
2.2.1 Emission Scenarios
Fundamentally, there are three possible ways that could explain the apparent accretion luminosities being higher than 1039 ergs1 for non-nuclear sources like ULXs. Using standard accretion physics propounded by the Shakura & Sunyaev model (1973), the most straightforward way to increase the luminosity of an accreting system is to increase the black hole mass (the Eddington luminosity is directly proportional to the mass of the black hole). This would mean that the black hole within a ULX could be more massive than an ordinary stellar mass black hole. The second possibility which could account for the high luminosities of ULXs is that such sources have beamed emission. This beamed emission could either be a geometric or relativistic phenomenon which could reproduce the observed ULX luminosities. The third possibility which could explain such high X-ray luminosities is that the mass accretion rate onto the black hole is so high that the accretion disk does not have a standard structure and the emission from the binary system is able to exceed the Eddington luminosity (Feng & Soria 2011). As it has been pointed out earlier, it is possible that the brightest ULXs are powered by a combination of the three possibilities. Assuming standard accretion physics and solar abundances for donor stars, the apparent luminosity of an accreting black hole is given by L 1.3 1038 MBH ) erg s1 m m( b M 1 (2)
1.3 1038 3 MBH (1 + ln m)( ) erg s1 1 b 5 M
100
(3)
(Shakura & Sunyaev 1973; Poutanen et al. 2007; Feng & Soria 2011) where b is the beaming factor (has values between 0 and 1), and m is the dimensionless mass accre tion rate from the donor star at large radii, normalized to the Eddington accretion rate (m 0.1 MM ) (Feng & Soria 2011)
Edd
Using equations 2 and 3, we can now discuss the the details of the dierent possible emission scenarios involving beaming, super-Eddington accretion or a combination of both these scenarios. These dierent emission scenarios have been discussed in detail
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2.2 Models of ULXs
by Feng & Soria (2011).
Strong Beaming
It can be seen from equations 2 and 3 that the luminosity is inversely proportional to the beaming factor b. If 1 1, then the value of luminosity will increase signicantly b and this will result in the strong beaming scenario. There are many known extragalactic accreting black hole systems that exhibit strong beamed emission (Feng & Soria 2011). Examples of these sources are blazars and BL Lac objects (Urry & Shafer 1984). There is also one source known as SS 433, which is a Galactic binary that is known to have beamed anisotropic emission and semi-relativistic jets (Feng & Soria 2011). It was initially postulated that a sample of ULXs catalogued using ROSAT were actually blazars or BL Lac objects or objects similar to SS 433 that were being observed face on (Fabrika & Mescheryakov 2001, Krding et al. 2002, Begelman et al. 2006; Feng o & Soria 2011). The main issue with the relativistic beaming scenario is that there is a lack of observation of a large number of lower-luminosity beamed sources which this emission scenario predicts (the model predicts 30 sources with apparent luminosity 1039 ergs1 for every ULX at L = 1 1040 ergs1 ) (Davis & Mushotzky 2004; Feng & Soria 2011). However, much fewer sources with luminosities higher than 1039 ergs1 ) are observed ( 5 10 sources for every ULX at L = 1040 ergs1 (Feng & Soria 2011; Swartz et al. 2004; Grimm et al. 2003). These observations are consistent with the higher end of the luminosity function for high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) (Feng & Soria 2011). The presence of photoionized bubbles around many ULXs like Holmberg II X-1 (Pakull & Mirioni 2002; Kaaret et al. 2004) and NGC5408 X-1 (Kaaret & Corbel 2009) require at least quasi-isotropic X-ray emission of luminosities 1040 ergs1 . Moreover, the vast majority of ULXs do not exhibit fast X-ray variability and have no radio counterparts that would be expected for strong relativistic beaming eects (Feng & Soria 2011). It is because of these reasons that the strong relativistic beaming emission scenario is not regarded as a plausible general model which could explain the high luminosities of ULXs.
Mild Beaming with Super-Eddington Accretion

Another possible emission scenario involves a combination of a very high accretion rate and mild beaming. In this scenario the value of 1 is 10 in equation 3 and the b value of the dimensionless accretion m is 1. If super-Eddington accretion does occur than radiative outows are driven out from the inner part of the accretion disk (in the part where the disk becomes geometrically thick) (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973; Poutanen et al. 2007; King 2009; Feng & Soria 2011). In an emission scenario suggested in King et al. (2001) and King (2009), the radiative wind produced as a result of the high accretion could produce a funnel wall which would scatter and beam the emission in
12
2.2 Models of ULXs
a direction perpendicular to the the axis of the disk plane (Feng & Soria 2011). This emission scenario combines both beaming and high mass accretion rates (m 10 30) 41 1 for almost all ULXs up to luminosities 10 ergs with ordinary stellar mass black holes (M 20M ). Results from recent numerical radiation-magneto-hydrodynamical simulations (Ohsuga et al. 2009; Takeuchi et al. 2010; Mineshige & Ohsuga 2011) show that even a moderately super-critical mass supply can produce total luminosities [in excess of 1.7LEdd and] apparent luminosities of 22LEdd for face on observers [due to mild beaming eects] (Mineshige & Ohsuga 2011) (Feng & Soria 2011). In an alternative emission scenario, there is a possibility that only super-Eddington accretion (without mild beaming) could result in the high apparent luminosities observed from ULXs. Due to the development of photon bubble instabilities in radiation pressure dominated accretion discs, strong density inhomogeneities arise (Begelman 2002). The radiation coming from these disk regions would escape at a much faster rate ( 10 times above the typical Eddington limit for stellar mass black holes) (Feng & Soria 2011).
Quasi-isotropic Eddington Luminosity

Some emission models and simulations propose that the classical Eddington limit is not a constraint on the luminosity of a ULX. However, the Eddington limit has empirically worked to constrain the luminosities of many compact objects like Galactic black holes and neutron stars. Feng & Soria (2011) point out that the luminosities of over 60,000 quasars (at redshift 0.2 < z < 4) in the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey (SDSS) are strongly limited by the Eddington luminosity for all types of black hole masses. Only a very small fraction of these quasars have luminosities between 1 to 3 Ledd (Steinhardt & Elvis 2010). In a quasi-isotropic emission model, the luminosities of the ULXs are assumed not to exceed the Eddington luminosity (LEdd 1). The radiative anisotropy of a ULX would only be a factor of 1 (Feng & Soria 2011). In the absence of any collimation, the beaming factor for a standard accretion disk will be 1 = 2) (Feng & b Soria 2011). Now, in order for such a model to produce luminosities in the same orders of magnitude as ULXs, the mass of the accreting black hole will have to increase. For a ULX with a luminosity of 1040 ergs1 , the accreting black hole in the system must have a mass of M 100 (Feng & Soria 2011). This mass is the theoretical upper limit for the single core collapse of the most massive stars in our universe. This number is also the lower limit for the population of black holes proposed to be intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). In such an emission scenario, ULXs more luminous than 1040 ergs1 must be powered by an IMBH. For instance, the ULX catalogued as HLX-1 has a peak bolometric luminosity of 1042 ergs1 (Farrell et al. 2009; Davis et al. 2011). If the luminosity of this source is Eddington limited and quasi-isotropic, then the inferred
13
2.2 Models of ULXs
mass of the black hole is at least 104 M (Feng & Soria 2011).
Quasi-isotropic sub-Eddington Luminosity

As the previously described emission model, it could also be true that the ULX system is actually emitting at sub-Eddington luminosities. The emission could be nearly isotropic or disk beamed. In this straightforward emission scenario, the mass of the black hole powering the ULX would simply have to be an IMBH, approximately in the mass range of 102 104 M . In such an emission scenario, similar X-ray spectral properties and state transitions will be seen from both ULXs and Galactic black hole binaries ((Feng & Soria 2011). The emission scenarios described above require three dierent mass ranges of black holes that were mentioned in the beginning of section 2.2. In the next subsections, each of these mass ranges for black holes and the emission scenario they could support will be discussed.
2.2.2 Ordinary Stellar Mass Black Holes
Black holes are dened to be regions of space-time from which even light cannot escape. Our understanding of black holes arise from Einsteins general theory of relativity. The main formation mechanism for black holes is provided by our understanding of stellar evolution. Gravitational core collapse of aging stars results in the formation of compact objects. This occurs when the stars burn out and have no radiation pressure that could balance the gravitational force pulling the star inwards. Ordinary stellar mass black holes (M 20M ) are formed as a result of the gravitational collapse of heavy stars. In the context of ULXs, ordinary stellar mass black holes would require a strong beaming or some super-Eddington accretion emission scenario to be able to power ULXs. There is direct observational evidence for stellar mass black holes in our local universe and more than 20 black holes with M 5 10M have been identied in high mass X-ray binary systems (McClintock & Remillard 2006; Feng & Soria 2011). The largest observed Galactic stellar mass black holes have masses around 14.04.4M (in GRS 1915+105 (Harlaftis & Greiner 2004)) and 14.8 1M (in Cygnus X-1 (Orosz et al. 2011)). Similar stellar mass black holes have been observed in HMXBs in other galaxies. The X-ray binary in M33-X 7 hosts a stellar mass black hole estimated to be 15.7M (Orosz et al. 2007). As a constrain for this mass class of black holes, an upper limit of 20M is used. An accreting binary system in which a black hole has
14
2.2 Models of ULXs
been observed in the starburst galaxy IC 10 could have a mass 2040M (Prestwich et al. 2007; Silverman & Filippenko 2008). This high uncertainty in mass calculation is due to the unknown mass of the companian star and inclination angle of the binary plane (Feng & Soria 2011). For ordinary stellar mass black holes, the formation mechanism is explained by stellar evolution model and their existence and formation are fairly well understood. However, as it was discussed in the previous section, in order for a ULX to be powered by a black hole of mass 20Modot then the emission scenarios are fairly constrained. The strong beaming emission scenario was discussed and shown to be a very unlikely emission scenario that could explain ULXs. Furthermore, the presence of super-Eddington accretion would have to be shown in ordinary stellar mass black hole binaries for them to be a plausible model that could explain the high ULX luminosities.
2.2.3 Massive Stellar Black Holes

Massive stellar black holes have a mass range between 20M to100M . It was briey discussed that the formation of a stellar mass black hole requires a massive star to go through its evolution and if the resulting compact remnant has a mass exceeding the Tolman-OppenheimerVolko limit ( 2 3M ) then an ordinary stellar mass black hole can form. The mass of this compact remnant depends on the initial mass which the progenitor of the black hole has, and is also aected by the amount of mass that is lost by the star through stellar winds during its life (Feng & Soria 2011). The amount of radiatively driven stellar winds from massive stars depend signicantly on their metallicity (Vink et al. 2011). The maximum mass of a stellar black hole is thus dependent on the metallicity of the progenitor star (the mass of the remnant core is higher if the metallicity of the star is lower). Belczynski et al. (2010) determined the mass limits for the formation of black holes at dierent metallicities. They posit that the collapse of a single star with solar metallicity can form a black hole of 15M , 30M for a star with 0.3 times the metallicity of the sun (Feng & Soria 2011). A stellar black hole could possibly have a mass of 80M if metallicity is as low as 0.01 times the metallicity of the sun (Belczynski et al. 2010; Feng & Soria 2011). Other studies which constrain black hole mass from metallicity also give a similar mass limit of 70M for low metallicity stars (Feng & Soria 2011). This relationship between stellar black holes and metallicity is consistent with the results of dynamical mass estimates of black holes in Galactic X-ray binaries and estimated metallicities of their progenitors. Present stellar evolutionary model give a black hole remnant distribution that peaks at
15
2.2 Models of ULXs
10M , but theoretically the black hole could have a mass as high as 100M (Feng & Soria 2011). The scenario for the formation of ULXs in low metallicity environments has been explored quantitatively in detail by Mapelli et al. (2009, 2010) and Zampieri & Roberts (2009). The distinction between ordinary stellar mass black holes and massive stellar black holes is made here because the formation mechanism for the latter is much more unique and requires extreme formation conditions. Furthermore, another dierence in the formation mechanism of ordinary stellar mass black holes and massive stellar black holes is that the former are formed through a supernova explosion followed by rapid fallback of the remnant core. Whereas massive stellar black holes are posited to form through direct core collapse without an explosion (Fryer 1999). The reason for this formation mechanism for massive stellar black holes is attributed to the lower gravitational energy released during core collapse for massive objects. This low gravitational energy is not strong enough to expel the stellar envelope outwards and cause a supernova explosion (Feng & Soria 2011). This is believed to be true for massive low metallicity stars. The threshold mass for direct collapse without a supernova type even for low metallicity stars is estimated to be 40M (Fryer 1999; Heger et al. 2003). For massive stellar black holes the emission scenarios that could account for ULXs with luminosities lower than 1040 ergs s1 is quasi-isotropic Eddington luminosity. Mild beaming and superEddington accretion scenario could also be attributed to ULXs with higher luminosities and a massive stellar black hole.
2.2.4 Intermediate Mass Black Holes
In the known universe, observational evidence has proven the existence of both stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes (which are believed to be located at the center of most galaxies. These supermassive black holes have masses in the order of 105 109 M . No conclusive evidence has been found for black holes that have a mass in the range of 102 104 M . This mass range for black hole classies what are believed to be intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). There are no certain explanations for the formation of IMBHs. It is very unlikely that they arise from the core collapse of very massive population I or II stars. Even though there are observed stars with mass 200M , the formation of an IMBH would be very dicult from the collapse of these stars as Helium cores more massive than 70M undergo a pair instability explosion which destroys the entire star without the formation of any black hole(Bond et al. 1984; Heger & Woosley 2002). There is a possibility of a black hole forming in the case that
16
2.2 Models of ULXs
the remnant Helium core has a mass of 130M , this would require an initial stellar mass of at least 260M and zero metallicity (Heger & Woosley 2002; Feng & Soria 2011). There are three plausible formation mechanisms for IMBHs. The rst formation mechanism posits that the progenitors of IMBHs are metal-free population III stars that formed in the early universe. These stars are thought to be very massive stars that could reach masses of up to a few hundred solar masses (above the pair instability limit). These population III stars could have collapsed to form IMBH which could power ULXs (Madau & Rees 2001). It is also possible that IMBH are formed through collisions and mergers of massiver stars in dense young star clusters. Dynamical friction could lead to mergers of stars on times scales of less than a million years which could result in the formation of a very massive star which could then go on to collapse into an IMBH (Portegies Zwart & McMillan 2002; Grkan et al. 2004; Portegies Zwart et al. u 2004; Vanbeveren et al. 2009). It has been postulated using dynamical mass estimates that few global clusters could contain an IMBH (M 104 M )(Gebhardt et al. 2005). It has also been suggested that stellar mass black holes within globular clusters could grow 100 times their mass through accretion of gases lost by the stars that reach the red giant phase in these clusters (Anderson & van der Marel 2010; Vesperini et al. 2010). For some extreme ULXs, it has been hypothesized that it could be possible for IMBH to drift in to the Halo of major galaxies following tidal stripping of merging dwarf satellite that contain a nuclear black hole (King & Dehnen 2005; Bellovary et al. 2010). The higher the mass of the black hole powering the ULX will be, the more the luminosity will be (as the Eddington limit would be higher for such an accreting source). Feng & Soria 2011 summarize these three classications of non-nuclear black holes that could power ULXs in a table which has been reproduced below.
Table 1: Table reproduced from Feng & Soria (2011) showing the dierent mass classications for black holes that could power ULXs, their progenitors and possible emission scenarios Type of Black Hole Mass Progenitor Emission Scenario Ordinary Stellar Mass BH 20M Regular stars Beaming and/or super-Eddington accretion Quasi-isotropic emission at Eddington luminosities Quasi-isotropic emission at sub-Eddington luminosities
Ordinary Stellar Mass BH
20M -100M
Low metallicity stars pop III stars Cluster core Stripped core
Intermediate Mass BH
102 104 M
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2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs
2.3 X-ray spectra and Variability of ULXs
ULX Spectra
X-ray spectral and variability properties of accreting black holes have been studied in quite a detail. This subsection aims at briey highlighting only the essential features of the X-ray spectra and variability of ULXs. Observations have shown that one of the main features of the spectra of an accreting black hole is a power law. In a power-law spectral energy distribution the energy ux emitted by the source per unit area and per unit time is F (E) E 1 , where is referred to as the photon index and Gamma-1 as the spectral index (). This power law feature of the spectra is primarily attributed to the radiative processes such as synchrotron emission from a jet or inverse Compton scattering of photons from the inner accretion disk. In the rst scenario, synchrotron emission is caused by relativistic electrons spiralling in a magnetic eld. In the inverse Compton scattering scenario, the power law continuum is produced in the hot coronal gas of the accretion disk. The photons from the accretion disk are scattered to higher energies after interactions with energetic relativistic electrons in the surrounding corona. The spectra of an accreting black hole is not limited to the power law feature. X-ray spectra may exhibit other features (like soft excess, emission lines, reection component, absorption lines ). The X-ray spectral and timing properties of ULXs (in the 0.3-10 keV band) have been widely studied and modelled as a result of the data made available by XMM-Newton and Chandra telescopes (Feng & Soria 2011). In the case of ULXs, good quality energy spectra are split into two types. The rst type of spectra are consistent with a simple power law while the second type of spectra exhibit more complex features. In the second type of spectra, mainly a mild broad curvature over the whole band [is seen], with a break or steepening above 2 keV, or soft excess below 2 keV (Feng & Soria 2011). Low counting statistics spectra of many ULXs can reasonably well be tted with a broad power-low model, in which the photon index has an average value of 1.8 2 (Swartz et al. 2004; Winter et al. 2006; Berghea et al. 2008). The value of the photon index varies depending on whether the source is hard or soft. Some sources with a hard spectrum (lower values of photon index) also show strong ux variability. This behavior is also observed in hard state Galactic X-ray binaries (Feng & Soria 2011). Presence of compact continuous radio jets are also expected from hard state sources. For soft sources (with higher values of ) the ULX
18
spectra can be classied as being like the steep power law state of Galactic black hole binaries emitting near Eddington luminosities (Feng & Kaaret 2005; Winter et al. 2006; Soria 2007). An example of the X-ray spectrum of the ULX source NGC 1313 X-1 is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The left panel shows an XMM EPIC-pn spectrum of NGC 1313 X-1 in which absorbed MCD (multicolour disk model -dotted line)+power law (dashed line) model with three gaussian components (thin solid lines) at energies 0.59, 1.8 and 4.7 keV (from Turolla et al. 2006). The right panel shows the unfolded MOS-1 and MOS-2 spectra of NGC 1313 X-2. The total spectrum, cool (kT 160 eV) disk component, and power-law components are shown in black, blue, and red, respectively (from Miller et al. 2003).
As mentioned above, a characteristic feature of high counting statistics spectra of several ULXs is the presence of a soft excess. The excess residuals at lower energies (< 2 keV) are observed when power law ts are made for higher energies (Feng & Soria 2011). To model these ts, an additional disk component (e.g. the diskbb model; Mitsuda et al. 1984) is needed which corresponds to disk temperatures between 0.1-0.4 keV (Feng & Soria 2011). This additional component is cooler and more luminous for ULXs than it is for Galactic black hole binaries. It has been suggested that the low temperature and high luminosity of the disk can be explained by accretion onto an IMBH. However, there are alternative explanations which suggest that the soft excess could arise from massive outows as a result of supercritical accretion or that the excess may originate from the outer accretion disk, as the inner part may be obscured by outows or a scattering corona (Feng & Soria 2011). An image of a typical ULX spectra taken from Feng & Soria (2011) showing the features of soft excess and hard curvature is reproduced in Figure 5.
19
Figure 5: The typical ULX spectra shape is given in the gure above in the colour grey. The soft excess feature can be seen between 0.1 and 2 keV and the hard component is seen from 2 keV to 10 keV. In the left part of the gure, the soft excess is shown to be modelled by a cool diskbb (cool thermal component), over the power-law extension of the hard component. The hard curvature is adequately t using a slim disk model (p-free) or a warm, thick Comptonization model (comptt) (taken from Feng & Soria 2011).
Another feature of high quality ULX spectra is the high energy steepening. This curvature eect can generally be tted by a Comptonization model (as comptt; Titarchuck 1994) with low energy electrons and high optical depth (Feng & Soria 2011). The reason for this feature varies from source to source and has been attributed to hot standard disk, thermal slim disk and p-free model, warm disk corona, bulk motion Comptonizaton. Details of these various varieties of scenarios that can explain ULX spectra can be read in Feng & Soria (2011).
X-ray Variability
The power spectrum of Galactic black hole binaries have been split into broad and narrow components (such as quasi-periodic oscillations, QPOs) based on their prominent observational features. The study of these temporary features of power spectrum
20
have been useful in determining various accretion states and properties of the black hole (Feng & Soria 2011). Observations of ULXs that have similar luminosities and energy spectra can be split into two groups based on their X-ray variability (Heil et al. 2009). One group of these sources exhibit very strong variability while the second group shows weak variability. For Galactic black hole binaries, low variability is posited to be caused by thermal emission with no jets while high variability is associated with the corona and steady jets (Belloni 2010; Feng & Soria 2011 ). One way to nd the mass of the black hole in a ULX is by studying its variability. Correlations which are believed to scale with the mass of the black hole have been made between spectral parameters and frequency. (Feng & Soria 2011). Correlations have been made between the frequency of QPOs in the power density spectrum and the disk ux in Galactic black hole binaries. However, there is still diculty in knowing how the black hole mass scales with regards to QPOs (Feng & Soria 2011). Broad continuum features in the power density spectrum are thought to provide a better determination of the black hole mass in ULXs. The correlation between broad continuum and black hole mass has been well studied for a wide range of black hole masses and frequencies. The results of most of these scaling relationships between characteristic frequencies and black hole masses indicate that ULXs could host black holes with masses between 102 104 M (Feng & Soria 2011). However, there are many issues with regards to these scaling relations as we do not know whether variability features of ULXs are exactly the same as Galactic black hole binaries. Moreover, the scaling relationship used for AGNs and Galactic black hole binaries do not consider high accretion rates close to Eddington luminosity. Furthermore, the low signal to noise ratio makes it dicult to detect QPOs with high frequencies which could provide direct scaling with black hole mass (Feng & Soria 2011).
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2.4 ULX Environments
2.4 ULX Environments
In this subsection the galactic and immediate environments of ULXs are briey discussed. In the context of the study carried out in this project, ULXs are considered to be binary systems in which a black hole is accreting directly from donor stars with a mass of at least 8 M . Indeed the properties of the majority of the ULX optical counterparts are consistent with massive donors (e.g. Liu et al. 2007; Mucciarelli et al. 2007; Gris et al. 2008, 2011). This makes ULXs comparable to HMXB(high mass e X-ray binaries) which are predominantly located in spiral and irregular galaxies (Feng & Soria 2011). ULX populations are found in both spiral/irregular galaxies and elliptical galaxies. However, very few genuine ULXs are believed to be found in elliptical galaxies. The vast majority has rather low luminosity(apparent Lx 2 1039 ergs1 (Swartz et al. 2004; Feng & Soria 2011) and most are thought to be background or foreground noise. More luminous ULXs are located in spiral and irregular galaxies and particularly in star-forming galaxies. Both early and late type spirals (on the Hubble scale)host ULXs. However, it is dicult to assume what sort of donor star could be in a ULX simply by knowing in what type of galaxy the ULX is being hosted (for a spiral galaxy, the donor is not necessarily an OB star)(Feng & Soria 2011). Moreover, the characteristic age of the neighbouring stellar populations of some ULXs were found to be greater than 10 million years (e.g. Gris et al. 2008, 2011)). e Studies trying to determine whether ULXs are hosted within stellar clusters have not been able to nd a signicant spatial association between ULXs and stellar clusters (Feng & Soria 2011). ULXs are generally found close to star forming regions and to young star clusters, but often displaced from them, by a distance 0.11 kpc (e.g. Zezas et al. 2002; Swartz, Tennant & Soria 2009; Berghea 2009). This undermines the ULX formation scenario involving direct core collapse in stellar clusters. A large number of ULXs have been shown to be surrounded by optical emission nebulae. The nebulae appear to be young and are most likely to have been ionized by the X-ray emission from ULXs or through shock ionization. This distinction between these two regimes of ionization is dicult to make and requires detailed spectral analysis. In gure 6, an example of the optical images of the nebulae surrounding two ULX are shown. The environment of ULXs can play a crucial role in avoiding the contamination problem of ULX observations that was briey mentioned earlier. ULX environments are further discussed in the next subsection.
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2.5 Optical Counterparts of ULXs
Figure 6: The image on the left shows the continuum subtracted H image of the nebula LH9/10 around the ULX M81 X-9 (Holmberg IX X-1) and the image on the right is a 600 pc diameter H bubble around the ULX NGC 1313 X-2. This is a shock excited nebula which is expanding at 80 km s1 (taken from Pakull & Mirioni 2003).
Optical counterparts of ULXs refer to the optical sources that are spatially associated with a ULX. It is expected that the optical emission from a ULX counterpart could come from the donor star, the outer accretion disk or could be combined emission from both (Feng & Soria 2011). Observations of optical counterparts have been useful in some cases for resolving the contamination problem from background AGNs. The study of optical counterparts with regards to ULXs is important in the context of this work. Studying counterparts can give information regarding the binary evolution, nature of the donor star and mode of mass transfer. In this study, photometric data of the optical counterparts is used to constrain the black hole mass. The identication of optical counterparts has been made possible by the positional accuracy of the Chandra telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST ). Spatial resolution is very important when determining optical counterparts for ULXs as they are extragalactic sources and it would be dicult to pinpoint the counterparts as there maybe many stars associated with the ULX due to errors in the resolution. Studies have been able to model the optical emission properties of ULXs. By calculating and modelling the X-ray irradiaton expected from the disk (Copperwheat et
23
al. 2005, 2007) one can account for both the contribution of the donor star and the outer accretion disk. However, identication of a unique optical counterpart among a densely populated star forming region is the main challenge. In this study, photometric data for optical counterparts of 13 ULXs is taken from a study by Tao et al. (2011). Identication of these counterparts is made by aligning Chandra and HST images (this helps to reduce the error in the source position from Chandra (Tao et al 2011). An example of an HST image for the ULX NGC 5408 X-1 is given in gure 7.
Figure 7: This is a HST/WFC3 composite image (blue - F225W, green -F502N, red - F845M) of the eld surrounding ULX NGC 5408 X-1. The yellow circle represents the overplotted radio position from the VLA and the red dotted circle are the ATCA positions. Inside the whitebox are the nearby stellar associations (Gris et al. 2012). e
In gure 8, the HST images around 3 ULXs that were studied by Tao et al. (2011) are shown.
Figure 8: HST images around 3 ULXs: NGC 4559 X-7, M83 IXO 82 and NGC 2403 X-1 . The original X-ray position of the ULX is indicated by the solid circle (with a radius of 0.6 corresponding to the absolute error of Chandra). The arrow points towards north and has a length of 1. The dashed circle represents the X-ray position corrected after alignment. For NGC 2403 X-1, there are 2 Chandra observations and the dashed circle is the mean position of those observations (taken from Tao et al. 2011).
24
In chapter 4, the data of optical counterparts for ULXs taken from Tao et al. (2011) will be discussed in detail. Optical counterparts are central to this study because by computing stellar evolutionary tracks for dierent donor masses it is possible to constrain the properties of the donor star and the black hole in the ULX. In the next chapter, a detailed account is given as to how the optical luminosity of a ULX binary system is modelled in this study.
25
3.0 MODELLING THE OPTICAL EMISSION FROM ULXS
3.0 Modelling the Optical Emission from ULXs

The main aim of this research thesis is to be able to compute stellar evolutionary tracks for massive stars (8M up to 50M ) in a binary system with an accreting black hole (with mass of 20M and 100M . These stellar evolutionary tracks involve computing the optical luminosity that will be emitted by the donor star and accretion disk as the star evolves. In this chapter, a detailed account is provided of the model that is assumed for the binary system and the parameters that are needed to be taken into account are discussed. Moreover, the computation of the optical luminosity and the code which was used to compute this and the evolutionary track for massive donor stars are also explained.
3.1 The Model
For the purpose of our study, we consider a binary system with a black hole of 20M or 100M . In this ULX model, it is assumed that the companion star of this black hole is a massive companion (M 8M ). This companion star orbiting around the black hole is assumed to eventually transfer matter onto the black hole. The evolution of the binary system is computed in the same way as it has been done by Patruno & Zampieri (2008; 2010) using a modied version of the updated Eggleton code (Eggleton 1971; Pols et al. 1995). The dierent parameters obtained from this code will be discussed later in this chapter. There are many factors that had to be taken into account by Patruno & Zampieri (2008; 2010) in order to model the evolution of such systems properly. The donor stars in this case are assumed to be massive (Zampieri & Roberts 2009). The modied Eggleton code then allows for non conservative stellar evolution while taking into account the amount of mass lost by massive stars due to stellar wind (de Jager et al. 1988). The
26
3.1 The Model
adopted mixing length parameters and overshooting constants were xed to = 2.0 and o = 1.2 respectively (Pols et al. 1998, Patruno & Zampieri 2008). The amount of anuglar momentum lost through the emission of gravitational waves (Landau & Lifshitz 1975) and particles in winds (Soberman, Phinney & van den Heuvel 1997) was also accounted for in the evolution of this system (Patruno & Zampieri 2008). The accretion mechanism for the system also needs to be taken into account while the evolved stellar parameters are computed for every time step. An accretion disk will form if accretion occurs through Roche-Lobe overow (RLOF), Patruno & Zampieri use an eciency value of = 0.1(10%) for the conversion of gravitational potential energy into radiation in a disk. The bolometric luminosity of the ULX is computed using L = M c2 where M denotes the mass transfer rate from the donor star and is computed by the numerical code for the evolution. For other accretion mechanisms like wind-fed accretion, the mass of the black hole in the binary system plays an important role. A more massive black hole will have a stronger gravitational potential and as a result the stronger gravitational pull will cause more loss through stellar wind to fall onto the black hole. The creation of an accretion disk through wind-fed accretion is a likely phenomena if the mass of the black hole is above 100M , in the range of IMBHs, but will not be considered in the present investigation. The other parameters which need to be taken into account when considering the evolution of a binary ULX system are initial orbital separation and stability of the accretion disk. In our model of the ULX, the evolutionary tracks are considered for the time during which accretion due to Roche-Lobe overow occurs (the tracks are computed until the end of the H-shell burning). It is assumed that a geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disk forms around the black hole and the accretion rate is taken to be equal to the mass-transfer rate from the companion. If the accretion rate M exceeds the Edd then the accretion rate is set to the Eddington accretion rate Eddington rate M assuming that the excess mass transferred is expelled from the system (Patruno & Zampieri 2010). In order for accretion to occur through RLOF, the radius of the star has to exceed its Roche Lobe radius. If a donor stars radius exceeds its Roch Lobe radius during main sequence then it is likely that there is a second phase of mass transfer after the terminal age main sequence (TAMS) (Patruno & Zampieri 2010). This maybe after the H-shell burning has begun. These are some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the ULX model that is used for the computation of stellar evolution tracks for the time the Roche-Lobe overow (RLOF) occurs. In the next section, details are given regarding the emission component from X-ray irradiation and the implementation of the code in order to model the total luminosity of the source.
27
3.2 Computing the Optical Luminosity 3.0 MODELLING THE OPTICAL EMISSION FROM ULXS
3.2 Computing the Optical Luminosity
In order to compute the optical luminosity from a ULX binary system, various calculations have to be performed on the model discussed in the previous section for each time step. For our study, data was available from Zampieri & Patruno (2008; 2010) with regards to the evolution of the parameters of dierent donor star accreting on to 20M and 100M black holes. Data was available for donor stars with initial masses of 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M . In the subsequent subsections, the working of the code that was used to model the optical luminosities of ULXs is explained.
3.2.1 Initial Data Files
The initial data les contained parameters of the donor stars in the ULX model for each time step. There was a separate data le for each donor star mass accreting on to both a 20M and 100M black hole. So the data les with evolutionary parameters were available for the following cases 1. 8M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 2. 10M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 3. 12M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 4. 15M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 5. 20M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 6. 25M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole 7. 8M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 8. 10M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 9. 12M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole
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10. 15M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 11. 20M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 12. 25M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole Additional data les were also available for the following cases: 13. 30M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 14. 50M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole 15. 30M donor star accreting onto a 10M black hole 16. 50M donor star accreting onto a 10M black hole In the rst 12 data les, the parameters of the donor stars evolution were available for the time periods when the radius of the star was greater than its Roche Lobe radius. While for the remaining 4 les, the output le was ltered in order to remove all lines in which the radius of the star was less than the Roche-Lobe radius. The header of each of these data les contained the following parameters: 1. Mass of the donor star in units of M 2. Mass of the black hole in units of M 3. Time in years 4. The orbital period in days 5. The eective temperature of the unirradiated star in Kelvins 6. The radius of the star in cm 7. Logarithm value of the luminosity of the star (in solar units) 8. Ratio between the logarithm value of the radius of the star and the logarithm value Rs of the Roche Lobe radius (lg( RL ) These were the parameters that were input into the code. Before going on to explain, how the code works, it is important to discuss X-ray irradiation and how it has been modelled to calculate the optical luminosity of the ULX by Zampieri & Partruno (2008; 2010). The next subsection discusses the modelling of the X-ray irradiation.
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3.2.2 X-ray Irradiation
A very important eect which needs to be considered when modelling the emission properties of ULXs is the optical emission from the accretion disk and in the case of isotropic emission, the reprocessed X-ray emission (Zampieri & Partruno 2008). The main areas in which X-ray irradiation is dominant are the outer parts of the accretion disk and the surface of the donor star. There is a signicant contribution from the accretion disk in the UV and B photometric bands when accretion occurs due to Roche-lobe overow. The total UV/optical luminosity of the ULX system has to be computed by summing over the contribution by the donor, the accretion disk and the reprocessed X-ray radiation. The Copperwheat et al. (2005) model for irradiation assumes isotropic X-ray emission from the ULX. The model considers the eects of radiative transport and radiative equilibrium in the irradiated surfaces of the star and the accretion disk (Copperwheat et al. 2007). The model also assumes a geometrically thin disk and takes into account the eects of radiation pressure, gravity and limb darkening (Copperwheat et al. 2007). The Copperwheat et al. (2005; 2007) model works well for the geometric constraints imposed by the Roche-Lobe overow on the accretion and a simplied version of this model is adopted by Patruno & Zampieri (2008, 2010). The code used in this study and by Patruno & Zampieri (2008, 2010) simplies the irradiation model further by assuming that the the companion star remains spherical and at uniform temperature (this assumption allows one to neglect the changes in the geometry of the star caused by Roche-Lobe geometry or radiation pressure). Moreover, the eects of gravity and limb darkening are not included. Another important consideration when modelling the optical emission is the hardness parameter of the X-rays. The Copperwheat et al. (2005) model showed that the results of the irradiative calculations are sensitive to the hardness parameter . This parameter is dened as the ux ratio between the hard (> 1.5 keV) and the soft (< 1.5 keV) component of the incident X-ray ux. In the code used for modelling the emission properties of ULXs, the hardness parameter was taken to be 0.1 (a locally soft irradiating spectrum is expected (Copperwheat et al. 2007)).
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3.2.3 Computing Total Luminosity

In this study, the code used by Patruno & Zampieri (2010) was again used to compute the total optical luminosity of the ULX model for the dierent cases that were stated in section 3.2.1. These output values were highly dependent on various parameters and constants that were xed for this study (some of the results with modied parameters are reported in Chapter 5). This code was written in the programming language python and was modied for this thesis. The output of the code is dependent on three main parameters that the code obtains using the data les. These are the mass of the donor star, the mass of the black hole and the binary period (from which the orbital separation is calculated) and the eective temperature of the unirradiated donor star). The parameters that have been xed in the code are the inclination angle () and the orbital phase (). The inclination angle was xed such that the disk is face-on (cos=1) and the value of the orbital phase was taken to be =0 (for a non zero inclination, the donor is on the opposite side of the BH with respect to the observer). The albedo for the irradiated surface layer of the disk was xed to be fa = 0.9. The distance to the source was xed at 10pc so that the obtained total magnitudes are absolute (making it simpler to compare them with the optical counterparts). The absorption parameters (ratio of the opacity to the electron scattering opacity) for hard and soft components were xed to be kh = 0.01 and ks = 2.5. For this study, the code was modied so that it only outputs the absolute magnitude in the V band and the B-V colour. This was because the data for the counterparts with which the evolutionary tracks are going to be compared is available in this band. Now that the fundamental parameters have been dened, we briey describe the main parts of the algorithm implemented in the code to compute the optical magnitudes and colours. 1. An iterative loop starts o by reading the rst line of the input data le and the parameters for donor star mass, black hole mass, time, period, temperature, radius etc are stored as variables. 2. Various calculations are made by the code to calculate parameters such as inner disk radius, outer disk radius, X-ray luminosity intercepted by the star and that intercepted by the disk. 3. The total luminosity of the irradiated disk is found by integrating over its spectrum. The spectrum is integrated over the optical band using values of the lter width and ux calibration for the UBVRI Johnson system (Cox, Allens Astro31
physical Quantities, 1999, chap. 15). In the modied version of the code this was only done for the B and V lters. 4. The eective temperature of the irradiated and unirradiated donor surfaces are computed and their magnitudes are calculated using analytic tting functions of calibration tables of MK spectral type stars (taken from Cox, Allens Astrophysical Quantities, 1999, chap. 15). From the magnitudes, the ux and the optical luminosity of the donor are calculated. 5. Once the the irradiated optical luminosities for both the disk and the donor surface are obtained, the total luminosity and magnitude of the ULX is computed. 6. An output le is written in which the time, B-V colour, and the V band absolute magnitude are printed. (the output le was modied so that the output le is written after every iteration). 7. The code reiterates for the next line in the data le and outputs the results in a new line on the output le.
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3.3 Binary Evolution

Once the code has run, it becomes possible to plot the output track on a colourmagnitude diagram. In order to do this a script was written in gnuplot. For the purpose of this study, the colour-magnitude diagrams were made for each dierent donor mass star in section 3.2.1. As an example of the output produced from the code, gure 4 and gure 5 showing the evolutionary track for 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M donors are plotted for accretion on to a 20M and 100M black hole.
Figure 9: This is a colour-magnitude diagram generated using the data output by the code, it shows the evolutionary tracks during RLOF for a ULX binary system in which the donor stars have masses 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M and the black hole has a mass of 20M . The y axis represents the absolute V band magnitude and the x-axis gives the B-V colour of the donor star. The optical contribution from X-ray irradiation has been taken into account for each evolutionary track. This gure is plotted as an example of the output of the code. Six dierent data les were used to plot the tracks for each donor mass. The data les were ltered to ensure that the plots were only made when the radius of the star was greater than its Roche-Lobe radius (to ensure RLOF).
33
Figure 10: This is a colour-magnitude diagram generated using the data output by the code, it shows the evolutionary tracks during RLOF for a ULX binary system in which the donor stars have masses 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M and the black hole has a mass of 100M . The y axis represents the absolute V band magnitude and the x-axis gives the B-V colour of the donor star. The optical contribution from X-ray irradiation has been taken into account for each track. This gure is plotted as an example of the output of the code. Six dierent data les were used to plot the tracks for each donor mass. The data les were ltered to ensure that the plots were only made when the radius of the star was greater than its Roche-Lobe radius (to ensure RLOF)
The stellar evolutionary tracks have been modelled and obtained, it is now possible to compare them with the photometric data for optical counterparts obtained by Tao et al. (2011). In the next section, the observational data available for 13 ULXs is presented.
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4.0 OBSERVATIONAL DATA FOR OPTICAL COUNTERPARTS
4.0 Observational Data for Optical Counterparts

In this section, details of the ULXs for which the data for optical counterparts (Tao et al 2011) is available, are presented. Their photometric properties are also discussed. These will be the ULXs for which optical counterparts will be compared to the modelled optical evolutionary tracks.
4.1 Counterparts of 13 ULXs

In a paper entitled, Compact optical counter of ultraluminous X-ray sources by Tao et al (2011), the multiband photometric properties of 13 ULXs which have a unique compact counterpart were reported. The study by Tao et al. (2011) was made using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST ). Before the beginning of the work by Tao et al. (2011), there were 10 ULXs with identied optical counterparts. However, due to the error boxes in optical data and X-ray data it was dicult to pinpoint the exact counterpart and in some cases there were more than one candidate for the optical counterpart of the source. In the study by Tao et al. (2011), the ULX catalogues were surveyed in order to improve the relative astrometry between the data from the HST and the Chandra telescope. Relative astrometric corrections are made by aligning objects shown on both telescopes. The details of how these astrometrical corrections are done is described by Feng & Kaaret (2008). The photometry of the 13 ULXs in the sample of Tao et al. (2011) was made using archival data from either the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS ) or the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2 ) instruments on the HST (Tao et al. 2011). From these instruments optical data for the counterparts is obtained in dierent lter bands. An important consideration in the results of this thesis is the total extinction in the line of sight to the counterpart. For certain ULX sources which are associated with optical nebulae, it is possible to have a more accurate value for the extinction. The extinction value of these sources are measured from emission lines from the optical spectra of the
35
nebulae with which they are associated. If there is no optical nebular association for the source then the Galactic extinction is adopted (Tao et al. 2011). An accurate value for the extinction measurement is important as it aects the colour of the source. The results of this study are separated for sources which have nebular extinction and those that have Galactic extinction. For 9 out the 13 ULXs sampled by Tao et al. 2011, there is nebular association. However, the values of nebular extinction are only available for 7 of these sources. The extinction can also be estimated from the neutral hydrogen column density, which is derived via X-ray spectral tting. According to Tao et al. (2011), the latter often overestimates the total extinction. In addition, the X-ray column density usually varies dramatically, causing additional diculty in deriving the extinction. Therefore, Tao et al. (2011) adopted Galactic extinction when the nebular extinction was unavailable. Clearly, this should be treated as a lower limit. The details of the photometry and how photometric data was obtained for ULXs can be found in Tao et al. (2011). Concerning the error estimates on the magnitude and colours, for the absolute V band magnitude, the value of the uncertainty was taken from the V-band error of the HST band given in Table 3 of Tao et al. (2011). For the uncertainty in colour, the square root of the sum of the squared values of the error in B and V band was calculated. In the next subsections, the individual sources sampled by Tao et al. (2011) that will be used for comparison with the evolutionary tracks for ULXs are discussed. Table 2 lists these 13 sources along with their Chandra coordinates and adopted distances to their host galaxies.
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Table 2: List of the 13 ULXs that are studied in this thesis. The adopted distance to the host galaxy is given in Mpc. The Chandra J2000.0 coordinates (right ascension (R.A.) and declination (Decl.) are also listed for each source. ULX Distance (Mpc) R.A. (J2000.0) Decl. (J2000.0) Holmberg II X-1 Holmberg IX X-1 IC 342 X-1 M81 ULS1 M81 X-6 M83 IXO 82 M101 ULX-1 NGC 1313 X-2 NGC 2403 X-1 NGC 4559 X-7 NGC 5204 X-1 NGC 5408 X-1 NGC 6946 ULX-1 3.05 3.6 3.3 3.63 3.63 4.7 7.2 3.7 3.2 10 4.3 4.8 5.1 08 19 28.980 09 57 53.32 03 45 55.61 09 55 42.20 09 55 32.95 13 37 19.799 14 03 32.37 03 18 22.18 07 36 25.563 12 35 51.725 13 29 38.62 14 03 19.62 20 35 00.752 +70 42 19.30 +69 03 48.10 +68 04 55.30 +69 03 36.50 +69 00 33.36 29 53 48.43 +54 21 02.75 66 36 03.3 +65 35 39.93 +27 56 04.41 +58 25 05.60 41 22 58.54 +60 11 30.55
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4.1.1 Holmberg II X-1
The X-ray source Holmberg II X-1 was catalogued by ROSAT (Kerp et al. 2002). It is a well studied source for which many multiband properties are known. The environment of the source is also well known (Kaaret et al. 2004). Holmberg II is a dwarf irregular star-forming galaxy located in the M81 group of galaxies. The source is known to be in an ionized nebula (Pakull & Mirioni 2002). In the Tao et al (2011) sample, the information for the nebular extinction is available for this source. A study regarding the nature of the UV/Optical emission from Holmberg II X-1 was recently carried out by Tao et al. (2012). The evolution of X-ray spectral properties (including the high energy curvature) of the ULX in Holmberg II X-1 has also been studied in detail (Kajava et al. (2012) and references therein).
Figure 11: False colour images of the continuum subtracted line emissiom from the nebula associated with the ULX in Holmberg II. The rst 3 images are for the emission lines HeII 4686, H 4861 and [OI] 6300. The fourth image is of the V-band continuum. In each image, the arrow points Northward and has a length of 1 (15 pc).The green cross marks the position of the bright star within the nebula, and the green curves are contours of HeII emission. The cyan circle and X in the narrow-V image denote the best Chandra position for the ULX and the relative Chandra/HST error circle (taken from Kaaret et al. 2004).
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Figure 12: Unabsorbed spectrum of Holmberg II X-1 from the X-rays to the UV/optical band with the best-tting diskir model (taken from Tao et al. 2012).
Tao et al. (2011) list data for 3 dierent observations of the optical counterpart for Holmberg II X-1. The proposed spectral types of the counterpart vary for each observation and are given to be B6-B7 Ib-Iab, B0-B1 Ib, B1-B2 Ib and O9-B0 Ib. The observations with quasi-simultaneous (within 1 hour) measurements of the V band magnitude and B-V colour of the optical counterpart of Holmberg II X-1 are reported in Table 3.
Table 3: Data for the counterpart of the source Holmberg II X-1 ULX Date B-V Mv Holmberg II X-1 10/3/2007 10/5/2007 10/9/2007 0.24 0.02 0.18 0.02 0.27 0.02 5.93 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.94 0.01
More details of this source are discussed in the results and discussion section of the thesis.
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4.1.2 Holmberg IX X-1
The source Holmberg IX X-1 (Gris et al. 2011) is also known as M81 X-9 and it e is embedded in an ionized nebula inside the dwarf irregular companion galaxy of M-81 known as Holmberg IX (Pakull & Mirioni 2002, Patruno & Zampieri 2008). Holmberg IX is considered to be one of the youngest nearby galaxies ( 200 Myr old) based on the observed age distribution of the stars that it contains (Sabbi et al. 2008). The spectral curvature for Holmberg IX X-1 is in the high energy part of the X-ray spectrum above 2 keV (Dewangan et al. 2006). The optical properties of Holmberg IX X-1 and its stellar environments are discussed in detail by Gris et al. (2011). The nebular extinction for e this source is known. However, the extinction varies from 0.09 to 0.26 mag within the nebula. (Tao et al. 2011). The value of extinction taken for this source by Tao et al. (2011) is 0.260.04. The size of the nebula is roughly measured to be 3 1012 cm (Tao et al. 2011).
Figure 13: Identication of the optical counterpart for Holmberg IX X-1 on an HST/ACS image in the F435W lter (left) and in the F330W lter (right). The counterpart is designated by a blue cross (left). Slits from the SUBARU (position angle of 180 ) and GEMINI observations (position angle of 90 ) are overlaid on the right image. The Chandra green circle) and XMM-Newton (red circle) positions are also overlaid (taken from Gris et al. 2011). e
For this source, one multicolour quasi-simultaneous observation of the optical counterpart is available. The possible spectral types of this counterpart could be O5V, O6III (Tao et al. 2011). The B-V colour index for Holmberg IX X-1 given by Tao et al. (2011) has a signicantly dierent value (B V = 0.42) from the value (B V = 0.25)
40
reported by Gris et al. (2011). The colour index and absolute value of the V band e magnitude obtained by Gris et al. (2011) in their study of the optical counterpart of e Holmberg IX X-1 have also been included in this study. The date of the observation with quasi-simultaneous (within 1 hour) measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude is reported in the table below.
Table 4: Data for the counterpart of the source Holmberg IX X-1. The * indicates that the photometric data was taken from Gris et al. (2011). e ULX Holmberg IX X-1 Date 2/7/2004 2/7/2004* B-V 0.42 0.04 0.250.05 Mv 5.88 0.03 6.000.02
4.1.3 IC 342 X-1
The source IC 342 X-1 is located in the intermediate spiral galaxy known as IC 342 (also referred to as Caldwell 5) in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is part of the IC 342/Maei Group of galaxies which is located just outside the Local Group of galaxies. IC 342 X-1 is also among the sample of ULXs for which a unique optical counterpart has been identied (Feng & Kaaret 2008). The ULX is observed inside an ionized nebula (Roberts et al. 2003; Gris et al 2006) and the nebular extinction for this source is e known (Tao et al. 2011). Recently, an unresolved radio source coincident with the ULX IC 342 X-1 was discovered (Kaaret et al. 2011). Radio emission at the position of the ULX IC 342 X-1 suggests that there could be the presence of an outow in this object (Gris 2010). There has also been the discovery of a radio nebula associated with the e ULX IC 342 X-1 using the Very Large Array (VLA) (Cseh et al. 2012).
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Figure 14: HST F625W band image of the region around IC 342 X-1. The dashed circle indicates the directly measured Chandra position of IC 342 X-1 with an uncertainty of 0.6, the solid circle indicates the corrected position (obtained by adding the known position coordinates with the corresponding oset) of the source and stars A and B are two possible optical counterparts (taken from Feng & Kaaret 2008). Tao et al. (2011) improved the position of the counterpart by using a smaller aperture and added the aperture correction into their results.
There is data for two observations of the optical counterpart of IC 342 X-1. The proposed spectral types of donor stars corresponding to these two observations are F5 Ib-Iab and F5 Ib-Iab. The dates of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
Table 5: Data for the counterpart of the source IC 342 X-1 ULX Date B-V Mv IC 342 X-1 9/2/2005 12/18/2005 0.370.15 0.30.13 5.940.10 5.950.09
4.1.4 M81 ULS1
The source M81 ULS1 (Liu et al. 2008) is an ultraluminous supersoft source located in the spiral galaxy M81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bodes Galaxy). Supersoft X-ray sources emit very low energy X-rays and the typical temperature of the soft component obtained from the X-ray spectral ts is 0.02 0.1 keV (Kahabka 2006). For an ultraluminous supersoft source, the compact object in the binary system could possibly
42
be a massive white dwarf or a black hole. Optical and infrared studies along with the detailed study of the spectrum of M81 ULS1 point towards the compact object being a black hole instead of a white dwarf (Liu 2008). Tao et al. (2011) provide the optical HST data for the counterpart of M81 ULS1. There is no known nebular association for this source and only Galactic extinction is available.
Figure 15: HST images of the optical counterpart for M81 ULS1 in F547M (1996), F656N (1996), F658N (2003), F814W (2004), F435W (2006) and F606W (2006). The WFPC2 F547M/F656N and ACS/WFC F435W images are plagued with cosmic rays. All images are aligned with the counterpart at the image centres. The red circle indicates the counterpart (taken from Liu et al. 2008).
There is data for 2 observations of the counterpart for M81 ULS1. Tao et al. (2011) give possible spectral types of A5-A7 Iab and F2 Ib-Iab for these observations. The dates of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
Table 6: Data for the counterpart of the source M81 ULS1 ULX Date B-V Mv M81 ULS1 3/21/2006 3/27/2006 0.110.04 0.220.04 6.260.04 5.990.04
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4.1.5 M81 X-6
The source M81 X-6 is also referred to in the literature as ULX NGC 3031 X-11 (Liu et al. 2002). M81 X-6 is a ULX which is located in the spiral galaxy M81. The source M81 X-6 is thought to be surrounded by a highly ionized nebula (Moon et al. 2011). Tao et al. (2011) acknowledge the nebular association of this source, however, they do not have a known value for the nebular extinction of this source and rely on the Galactic extinction instead. Spectral Variability of M81 X-6 has also been studied using X-ray data taken from ASCA (Mizuno et al. 2001).
Figure 16: The WFPC2 HST image of the optical counterpart of M81 X-6 and its environments. The counterpart,indicated by a cross, is a point source (taken from Liu et al. 2002).
There is data for 2 observations of the counterpart for M81 X-6. The proposed spectral types corresponding to these observations are B5-A3 II and B7-B8 II. The dates of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
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Table 7: Data for the counterpart of the source M81 X-6 ULX Date B-V Mv M81 X-6 1/31/1995 6/4/2001 0.060.18 0.130.07 3.910.06 4.010.06
4.1.6 M83 IXO 82
The source M83 IXO 82 (Stobbart et al. 2006) is a ULX located in the barred spiral galaxy M83 (also known as NGC 5236 or the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy). It is a very interesting source. Its optical spectrum could be consistent with the spectral index ( = 1/3) expected for intrinsic emission of a standard multicolour disk if the assumed reddening (B V = 0.066) is incorrect (Tao et al. 2011). As there is no nebular extinction available for the source, the reddening was calculated using Galactic extinction (Tao et al. 2011). M83 IXO 82 is a good candidate for a source in which the optical emission is dominated by intrinsic emission from an accretion disk (Tao et al. 2011). This source is among the sample of ULXs for which observations of the counterpart were made by Tao et al. (2011). Figure 8 shows the HST image around M83 IXO 82. There is data for 2 observations of the counterpart for M83 IXO 82 with possible spectral type of A2-F2 II or B1 V. The date of the observation with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude is given in the table below.
Table 8: Data for the counterpart of the source M83 IXO 82 ULX Date B-V Mv M83 IXO 82 2/25/2006 0.260.13 3.110.09
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4.1.7 M101 ULX-1
The source M101 ULX-1 (Kuntz et al. 2005) is a ULX located in the M101 galaxy (also known as NGC 5457 or Pinwheel Galaxy) which is a face-on spiral galaxy. The X-ray properties including variability of M101 ULX-1 are presented in detail by Mukai et al. (2005). The mass of the accretor in M101 ULX-1 was inferred to be between 20 and 40M on the basis of X-ray spectral ts (Mukai et al. 2005). Outbursts from M101 ULX-1 have also been studied in detail. Chandra and XMM-Newton results of an outburst from M101 ULX-1 in December 2004 give a peak bolometric luminosity of about 3 1040 ergs1 (Kong & Di Stefano 2005). Kong & Di Stefano (2005) suggest that M101 ULX-1 could harbour an intermediate-mass black hole. M101 ULX-1 is associated with an optical nebula and the extinction value for the nebula is given by Tao et al. (2011).
Figure 17: HST ACS F435W image of M101 ULX-1. The circle marks a 0.3 radius error box around the X-ray position (taken from Kuntz et al. 2005).
There is data for many observations of the counterpart for M101 ULX-1 with possible
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spectral types of B5 Iab or A3 Iab, O5 III or O8 II and O5 III or O8-O9 II or B7 Ib. The dates of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
Table 9: Data for the counterpart of the source M101 ULX-1 ULX Date B-V Mv M101 ULX-1 3/22/1994 4/8/1994 11/15/2002 0.110.08 0.280.08 0.310.04 6.390.03 6.150.03 6.000.03
4.1.8 NGC 1313 X-2
The source NGC 1313 X-2 (Ramsey et al. 2006; Pakull et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2007) is among the sample of ULXs for which counterparts were determined by Tao et al (2011). The source has been extensively studied in the X-ray and optical bands (e.g. Zampieri et al. 2004; Mucciarelli et al. 2007; Gris et al. 2008) and Patruno & e Zampieri (2011) have been able to constrain the parameters of this ULX employing the same methodology as the one used in this thesis. The ULX NGC 1313 X-2 is located inside the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1313 (also known as Topsy Turvy Galaxy). NGC 1313 X-2 is so far the only ULX with available Hubble Space Telescope light curves and a claim of detection of an optical periodicity at a low signicance level (Liu et al. 2009, 2012; Zampieri et al. 2012). The binned light curve for NGC 1313 X-2 in the B band (Zampieri et al. 2012) is shown in Figure 20. Many studies have been done to constrain the mass of the black hole in ULX NGC 1313 X-2 (Liu et al. 2012). The environment of the ULX is also very well studied (Zampieri et al. 2004; Gris et al. e 2008) and NGC 1313 X-2 does have an optical nebular association and the value of the nebular extinction is known (Tao et al. 2011).
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Figure 18: True colour HST image for a 50 50 region centred at the counterpart for NGC 1313 X-2. The image was composed with F435W,F555W,F814W images from a 2003 observation. The stellar eld is dominated by red stars with scattered blue stars (taken from Liu et al. 2007)
Figure 19: Binned light curve (6 bins) of the B band VLT +HST dataset of NGC 1313 X-2, folded over the best estimate of the period (6 days). The phase was measured from MJD=54390. (taken from Zampieri et al. 2012)
Multiple quasi-simultaneous observations were available for NGC 1313 X-2. This allowed Tao et al. (2011) to study the long-term variability of the source. For NGC 1313 X-2 (as previously shown by Impiombato et al. (2011)), the variability is higher in the B-band than in the V-band (Tao et al. 2011). The spectral type of the counterpart
48
for NGC 1313 X-2 is posited to be O9V or B0-B1 III (Tao et al. 2011). The average value for the B-V colour index of the source taking into account 20 observations performed in 2008 (Table 3.0 from Tao et al. (2011) obtained after converting the F435W band magnitude to the B band Johnson system (Sirianni et al. 2005)) was found to be -0.20. The average value for the absolute V band magnitude (MV ) from the 20 observations was found to be -4.59. These average values of the quasi-simultaneous observations of the counterpart of NGC 1313 X-2 were used for the purpose of this study. The dates of these observations and the average value for the the B-V colour index and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
Table 10: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 1313 X-2 ULX Date B-V Mv From 05/21/2008 to 06/09/2008
NGC 1313 X-2
0.200.02
4.590.01
4.1.9 NGC 4559 X-7
The source NGC 4559 X-7 (Stobbart et al. 2006) is a ULX located in the spiral galaxy NGC 4559 (also known as Caldwell 36). This is also a well studied source. Copperwheat et al. (2006) modelled its optical emission(in terms of an irradiated companion star and disk). The X-ray variability of NGC 4559 X-7 have also been studied in detail and reported by Cropper et al. (2004) and Barnard et al. (2007). An optical study of the star-forming environment around this source has been done by Soria et al. (2005). They found that the ULX is located near a small group of OB stars, but is not associated with any massive young clusters nor with any extraordinary massive stars. This source is among the sample of ULXs for which observations of the counterpart were made by Tao et al. (2011). Figure 8 shows the HST image around NGC 4559 X-7. There is data for 2 observations of the counterpart for NGC 4559 X-7 with possible spectral types of B2-B5 Ia and B3-B5 Ia. The dates of the observations with quasisimultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
49
Table 11: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 4559 X-7 ULX Date B-V Mv NGC 4559 X-7 5/25/2001 3/8/2005 0.170.03 0.120.04 6.980.02 7.100.03
4.1.10 NGC 5204 X-1
The source NGC 5204 X-1 (Liu et al. 2004) is a ULX located in the spiral galaxy NGC 5204 which is part of the M101 group of galaxies. The X-ray variability of NGC 5204 X-1 was monitored for over 2 months using the Chandra X-ray Observatory (Roberts et al. 2006). Inconsistent extinction was found for NGC 5204 X-1 and its surrounding nebula by Tao et al. (2011) suggesting that they may be unrelated. Detailed study of the spectral states and evolution of the ULX have also been made and it has been suggested that the emission in the ULX arises from the accretion disk (Feng & Kaaret 2009). The nebular association of the ULX NGC 5204 X-1 is questionable and Tao et al. (2011) use Galactic extinction for this source.
Figure 20: The optical counterpart of the ULX in NGC 5204 X-1 in an HST -ACS (Hubble Space Telescope, Advanced Camera for Surveys) image. The small error ellipses are derived from Chandra data. The slit position for the STIS MAMA/FUV observation is also shown on the gure. The nominal error circle includes HST-3 (which is designated as U1), while HST-1 and HST-2 (which breaks down to a chain of separate sources) are outside of this error circle. (taken from Liu et al. 2004).
50
There is data available for 3 observations of the counterpart for NGC 5204 X-1 with possible spectral types of O5V or O8III, B2 II-Ib and B3 II-Ib. The dates of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude are given in the table below.
Table 12: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 5204 X-1 ULX Date B-V Mv NGC 5204 X-1 8/8/2008 8/10/2008 8/13/2008 0.350.03 0.230.03 0.200.03 5.570.02 5.620.02 5.690.02
4.1.11 NGC 5408 X-1
The source NGC 5408 X-1 (Lang et al. 2007) is a ULX located in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5408 in the constellation Centaurus. NGC 5408 X-1 is a well studied source. Evidence of a rather long, regular modulation in the X-ray ux has been gathered for this source using data from the Swift telescope (115 days; Strohmayer 2009). It was interpreted as an orbital period or a super-orbital precession phenomenon (Foster et al. 2010). The optical spectra and the photoionized nebula surrounding NGC 5408 X-1 have also been well studied (Kaaret & Corbel 2009). The continuum component in the optical spectrum of NGC 5408 X-1 is found to be consistent with the spectrum from a standard accretion disk with irradiation (Kaaret & Corbel 2009). A radio nebula has also been observed in the surroundings of NGC 5408 X-1 (Corbel et al. 2009). The value of the nebular extinction is known for this source (Tao et al. 2011). The HST /WFC3 composite image of the eld surrounding NGC 5408 X-1 is shown in Figure 7. There is data for 1 observation of the counterpart for NGC 5408 X-1 with possible spectral type of O9 Ib. Both quasi-simultaneous V and B band measurement were performed. They are reported in the table below.
Table 13: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 5408 X-1 ULX Date B-V Mv NGC 5408 X-1 4/4/2009 0.280.04 6.270.02
51
4.1.12 NGC 6946 ULX-1
The source NGC 6946 ULX-1 (Kaaret et al. 2010) is a ULX located in the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 6946 (also known as Fireworks Galaxy, Caldwell 12 and Arp 29). The spectral variability of the ULX NGC 6946 ULX-1 has been studied by Kajava et al. (2009). The optical nebula associated with the NGC 6946 ULX-1 is known as MF16 and has also been thoroughly investigated (Abolmasov et al. 2007). Data for the optical spectroscopy of this nebula is also available (Abolmasov et al. 2008). This is one of the sources for which nebular extinction was known in the study by Tao et al. (2011).
Figure 21: The HST image of the counterpart to the X-ray source NGC 6946 ULX-1. The panels show A: FUV (F140LP lter), B: B-band (F450W lter), C: V-band (F555W lter), and D: I-band (F814W lter). The small circles mark the counterparts to the X-ray source and have radii of 0.15. The ellipses mark the extent of the nebula. The length of arrow pointing North in panel A is 1 (taken from Kaaret et al. 2011).
There is data available for 2 observations of the counterpart for NGC 6946 ULX1. Tao et al. (2011) give possible spectral types of B6-B7 Ia and B2 Ia for these observations. The date of the observations with quasi-simultaneous measurements of the B-V colour and V band magnitude is given in the table below.
52
Table 14: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 6946 ULX-1 ULX Date B-V Mv NGC 6946 ULX-1 01/27/1996 06/08/2001 0.070.23 0.420.18 7.260.16 7.270.12
4.1.13 NGC 2403 X-1
The source NGC 2403 X-1 (Feng & Kaaret 2005) is located in NGC 2403, which is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. It is part of the M81 Group of galaxies. NGC 2403 X-1 is a sparsely studied source. Weng et al. (2008) used the p-free model to t the spectra of NGC 2403 X-1. It is possible that the observed emission from NGC 2403 X-1 is the intrinsic emission of a standard multicolour disk (similar to the source M83 IXO 82) (Tao et al. 2011). This source is among the sample of ULXs for which observations of the counterpart were made by Tao et al. (2011). Figure 8 shows the HST image around NGC 2403 X-1. There is no known nebular association for NGC 2403 X-1 and the Galactic extinction value is taken for the source by Tao et al. (2011). There is data for 1 observation of the counterpart for NGC 2403 X-1 with possible spectral type of B0-B2V. Both quasi-simultaneous V and B band measurement were performed. They are reported in the table below.
Table 15: Data for the counterpart of the source NGC 2403 X-1 ULX Date B-V Mv NGC 2403 X-1 10/17/2005 0.070.08 2.900.06
53
4.2 Table of Photometric Data

A table summarizing the photometric data for the optical counterparts analyzed by Tao et al. (2011) and considered in the present investigation is reported on the next page.
54
Table 16: Table giving the data for the optical counterparts of the ULXs considered in this study (taken from Tao et al. 2011). The table gives the date (dd/mm/yy) of the observation, absolute V band magnitude, colour (corrected for extinction) of the counterparts. Whether nebular extinction for the source is available or not is also indicated and the adopted extinction value is given in the last column. * indicates that the photometric data for the date was taken from Gris et al. (2011). e ULX Holmberg II X-1 Date 03/10/2007 05/10/2007 09/10/2007 07/02/2004 07/02/2004* IC 342 X-1 02/09/2005 18/12/2005 21/03/2006 27/03/2006 31/01/1995 04/06/2001 25/02/2006 22/03/1994 08/04/1994 15/11/2002 21/05/2008 to 09/06/2008 17/10/2005 25/05/2001 08/03/2005 08/08/2008 10/08/2008 13/08/2008 04/04/2009 27/01/1996 08/06/2001 B-V 0.24 0.02 0.18 0.02 0.27 0.02 0.42 0.04 0.250.05 0.370.15 0.30.13 0.110.04 0.220.04 0.060.18 0.130.07 0.260.13 0.110.08 0.280.08 0.310.04 0.200.02 0.070.08 0.170.03 0.120.04 0.350.03 0.230.03 0.200.03 0.280.04 0.070.22 0.420.18 Mv 5.93 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.88 0.03 6.000.02 5.940.10 5.950.09 6.260.04 5.990.04 3.910.06 4.010.06 3.110.09 6.390.03 6.150.03 6.000.03 4.590.01 2.900.06 6.980.02 7.100.03 5.570.02 5.620.02 5.690.02 6.270.02 7.260.16 7.270.12 Nebular Extinction Y Extinction Value 0.07
Holmberg IX X-1
Y Y Y
0.260.04 0.260.04 0.82
M81 ULS1
0.08
M81 X-6
0.08
M83 IXO 82 M101 ULX-1
N Y
0.066 0.13
NGC 1313 X-2 NGC 2403 X-1 NGC 4559 X-7
Y N N
0.130.03 0.04 0.018
NGC 5204 X-1
0.013
NGC 5408 X-1 NGC 6946 ULX-1
Y Y
0.080.03 0.5+0.08 0.07
55
Distribution of the Magnitudes of the Counterparts

The gure below shows the distribution of the absolute magnitudes of the dierent observations of the counterparts for the 13 sources.
Figure 22: Distribution of the absolute V band magnitude of the dierent observations of the optical counterparts for the 13 sources listed by Tao. et al. (2011). It can be seen from the distribution that most of the counterparts have an absolute V band magnitude between -5.5 and -6.5.
56
Distribution of the B-V Colour Index of the Counterparts

The gure below shows the distribution of the absolute magnitudes of the dierent observations of the counterparts for the 13 sources.
Figure 23: Distribution of the B-V colour of the dierent observations of the optical counterparts for the 13 sources listed by Tao. et al. (2011) and reported in Table 16. It can be seen from the distribution that most of the counterparts have a B-V value between -0.30 and -0.10. The very bright and blue counterparts are likely to be either massive stars and/or strongly irradiated.
57
5.0 RESULTS
5.0 Results
In this section, the results of the study carried out are presented in the form of colourmagnitude diagrams showing stellar evolutionary tracks for ULXs (section 3) and the observational data for the optical counterparts discussed in the previous section. The results are split into two categories of sources. Firstly, the results from sources with known values for nebular extinction are given and then the result for the sources with Galactic extinction are presented. The results are further split into two subsections for each type of extinction. In one subsection the black hole mass is taken to be 20M and in the other the mass of the black hole is 100M . In the third section of this chapter, the results with the modied albedo parameters for particular tracks and sources are provided. It can be seen from Table 16, many ULXs show a certain degree of intrinsic optical variability that is expected in an accreting binary and may be due to varying physical conditions (e.g. instantaneous accretion rate) in the accretion disk. This clearly introduces some uncertainty (in addition to that induced by the photometric error) on the donor and black hole mass estimates. An example of how the colour of a source is aected by intrinsic optical variability is shown in the Figure 24.
Figure 24: Colour variation as a result of intrinsic optical variability of NGC 1313 X-2 (represented by plus) and a comparison object (diamond) (taken from Tao et al. 2011).
58
5.1 Sources with Nebular Extinction
5.0 RESULTS
5.1.1 Results for a 20M Black Hole
Figure 25: Colour-magnitude diagram showing the evolutionary tracks for a ULX binary system with a black hole of 20M and the position of the counterparts of Holmberg II X-1, Holmberg IX X-1, IC 342 X-1, M101 ULX-1, NGC 1313 X-2, NGC 5408 X-1 and NGC 6946 ULX-1. These were the sources for which the value of nebular extinction was available. The tracks are plotted for 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M donor stars. The tracks for donor stars of mass 30M and 50M in a binary system with a 10M black hole have also been added to this gure. The eects of X-ray irradiation are taken into account for each track. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars. 59
5.0 RESULTS
From Figure 25, it is now possible to see which of the tracks intersect with the position of the optical counterparts of the ULXs for which the value of nebular extinction is known. For the source Holmberg II X-1 (shown in yellow) there were 3 observations of the counterpart with colour values (B-V) between -0.16 to -0.29 (shown with the orange colour in the gure). It can be seen that only one of these observations intersects with the track for a 25M donor in a binary system with a 20M black hole. The intersection is in the post main sequence (MS) phase of the star. Another observation of the counterpart also intersects with the track for a 50M donor star (post MS) in a binary system with a 10M black hole. The third observation is in between the other two and appears to be fully consistent with a donor mass in the interval 30-50M (post-MS). For the source Holmberg IX X-1 there are 2 (shown in green colour with an inverse triangle) observations of the counterpart. One was taken from Tao et al. (2011) and the other was taken from Gris et al. (2011). The photometric data of the counterpart e taken from Tao et al. (2011) is too blue and does not intersect with any of the tracks. The photometric data taken from Gris et al. (2011) intersects with the tracks for e 30-50M donor stars. The 2 observations of the counterpart for the source IC 342 X-1 (shown in purple) do not intersect with any other tracks either. 2 observations of the optical counterpart of the source M101 ULX-1 (light blue with an empty circle) are consistent with the evolutionary track for a 50M post-MS donor star in a binary system with a 10M black hole. The other observed value of the counterpart of M101 ULX-1 does not intersect with any of the tracks. The counterpart observations for the source NGC 6946 ULX-1 (shown in pink colour) also do not intersect with any of the tracks. The only 1 observation of the optical counterpart of the source NGC 5408 X-1 (dark green) is consistent with the evolutionary track for a 50M post-MS donor star in a binary system with a 10M black hole. The average value of the B-V colour index and V band magnitude for the observations of the counterpart of NGC 1313 X-2 (shown in maroon) is consistent with the track of a 20M (post-MS) donor star. A summary of these results is presented in chapter 6.
60
5.0 RESULTS
Figure 26: Colour-magnitude diagram showing the evolutionary tracks for a ULX binary system with a black hole of 100M and the position of the counterparts of Holmberg II X-1, Holmberg IX X-1, IC 342 X-1, M101 ULX-1, NGC 1313 X-2, NGC 5408 X-1 and NGC 6946 ULX-1. These were the sources for which the value of nebular extinction was available. The tracks are plotted for 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M , 25M , 30M and 50M . The eects of X-ray irradiation are taken into account for each track. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars. 61
5.0 RESULTS
In Figure 26, it is now possible to see which of the tracks intersect with the position of the optical counterparts of ULX binary systems with a black hole of 100M for which the value of nebular extinction is known. For the source Holmberg II X-1 there were 3 observations of the counterpart with colour values (B-V) between -0.16 to -0.29 (shown with the orange colour in the gure). It can be seen that one of the observations of the counterpart is consistent with the evolution track for 30M donor stars (post-MS). While the other two observations of the counterpart are consistent with the evolutionary track of a 50M MS donor star. For the source Holmberg IX X-I, the photometric data of the counterpart taken from Tao et al. (2011) does not intersect with any of the tracks. The photometric data taken from Gris et al. (2011) intersects with the tracks for a 50M donor star. e The 2 observations of the counterpart for the source IC 342 X-1 (shown in purple) are consistent with the evolutionary track for a 8M or 10M (post-MS) donor star. One observation of the optical counterpart of the source M101 ULX-1 is consistent and another almost consistent with the evolutionary track of a 50M MS donor star. The third observation of the counterpart (B-V=-0.11) is consistent with the evolutionary track for a 20-30M post-MS donor star. The counterpart observations for the source NGC 5408 X-1 is close to intersecting the track for a 50M MS donor star. One of the observations for the counterpart of NGC 6946 ULX-1 (shown in pink) is consistent with a 50M post-MS donor star. The other observation for the counterpart is too blue to intersect with any of the evolutionary tracks but may be consistent with a donor slightly more massive than 50M . The average value for the photometric data of the observations of the optical counterpart of the source NGC 1313 X2 (shown in maroon) is consistent with the evolutionary track for a 20M donor star which is either in MS or in the terminal-age MS phase. A summary of these results is presented in chapter 6.
62
5.2 Sources with Galactic Extinction
5.0 RESULTS
Figure 27: Colour-magnitude diagram showing the evolutionary tracks for a ULX binary system with a black hole of 20M and the position of the counterparts of M81 ULS1, M81 X-6, M83 IXO 82, NGC 2403 X-1, NGC 4559 X-7 and NGC 5204 X-1. These were the sources for which the value of Galactic extinction was available. The tracks are plotted for 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M and 25M donor stars. The tracks for donor stars of mass 30M and 50M in a binary system with a 10M black hole have also been added to this gure. The eects of X-ray irradiation are taken into account for each track. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars. 63
5.0 RESULTS
From the colour-magnitude diagram in Figure 27, it is possible to see which sources with available data for the Galactic extinction are consistent with the the plotted evolutionary tracks for the donor masses. For the 2 observations of the counterpart for the source M81 ULS1 (shown in orange), it can be seen that none of the evolutionary tracks intersect them. The tracks for 8M to 15M MS or post-MS donor stars in a binary system with a 20M black hole are consistent with the 2 observations of the optical counterpart of the source M81 X-6 (shown in green). The observation of the optical counterpart for the source M83 IXO 82 (shown in purple) does not intersect with any of the evolutionary tracks. The optical counterpart for the source NGC 2403 X-1 (shown in blue) also does not intersect any of the evolutionary tracks. However, the track for 8M donor star in a binary system with a 20M does come very close to intersecting the counterpart. The observations of the optical counterpart for NGC 4559 X-7 do not intersect any of the evolutionary tracks either. One of the observations of the optical counterparts for the source NGC 5204 X-1 (B-V = -0.20) (shown in light green) is consistent with both the evolutionary track for a 25M post-MS donor star in a binary system with a 20M black hole and 30M post-MS donor star in a binary system with a 10M black hole. Another observation of the counterpart (B-V = -0.23) is also consistent with the evolutionary track for 30M post-MS donor star in a binary system with a 10M black hole. A third observation is almost consistent with the track of a 10 Msun black hole accreting from a 50M MS donor. These results are summarized and discussed in chapter 6.
64
5.0 RESULTS
Figure 28: Colour-magnitude diagram showing the evolutionary tracks for a ULX binary system with a black hole of 100M and the position of the counterparts of M81 ULS1, M81 X-6, M83 IXO 82, NGC 2403 X-1, NGC 4559 X-7 and NGC 5204 X-1. These were the sources for which the value of Galactic extinction was available. The tracks are plotted for 8M , 10M , 12M , 15M , 20M , 25M , 30M and 50M donor stars. The eects of X-ray irradiation are taken into account for each track. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars. 65
5.0 RESULTS
From the colour-magnitude diagram in Figure 28, it is possible to see which sources with available data for the Galactic extinction are consistent with the the plotted evolutionary tracks for various donor masses in a ULX binary sytem with a 100M black hole. The 2 observations of the counterpart for the source M81 ULS1 (shown in orange) are consistent with the evolutionary tracks for 8-10M and 12M post-MS donor stars. The observations of the optical counterpart of the source M81 X-6 (shown in green) are consistent with the evolutionary tracks for 8M to 15M donor stars (both in MS and post-MS phase). The observation of the optical counterpart for the source M83 IXO 82 (shown in purple) does not intersect with any of the evolutionary tracks. The optical counterpart for the source NGC 2403 X-1 also does not intersect any of the evolutionary tracks. However, the track for 8M donor star does come very close to intersecting the counterpart. The two observations of the optical counterpart for NGC 4559 X-7 (shown in maroon) are consistent with the evolutionary tracks for a 30M and 50M post-MS donor star. One of the observations of the optical counterparts for the source NGC 5204 X-1 (BV = -0.20) (shown in light green) comes close to being consistent with the evolutionary track for a 50M MS donor star . The other 2 observations of the counterpart are consistent with the evolutionary track for 30M MS phase donor star. These results are summarized and discussed in chapter 6.
66
5.3 Modied Albedo Parameter
5.0 RESULTS
5.3 Modified Albedo Parameter
5.3.1 Results for M101 ULX-1
Figure 29: Colour-magnitude diagram showing the evolutionary track for a ULX binary system (with a donor star mass of 20M and a black hole of 20M ) and the positions of the observations of the counterpart of M101 ULX-1. In the calculation of this track, the albedo parameter for the computation of the track was changed from 0.9 to 0.7. The eects of X-ray irradiation are taken into account. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars.
67
5.0 RESULTS
In the plot in Figure 30, the CMD with the evolutionary track of a 20M donor star in a binary system with a black hole of 20M is given along with the position of the observations of the optical counterpart for the source M101 ULX-1. This track was computed with the modied albedo parameter (fa = 0.7). The evolutionary track for the 20M donor star (post-MS phase) does come very close to the observation of the optical counterpart (at B-V=-0.11). These models were run to show the uncertainties related to the actual choice of the albedo. From the work of van Paradijs and collaborators (e.g. de Jong, van Paradijs & Augusteijn 1996), for a disk irradiated from grazing incident X-rays values of fa in the range 0.85-0.95 are reasonable.
68
5.0 RESULTS
5.3.2 Results for M83 IXO 82
Figure 30: Colour-magnitude diagram showing two evolutionary tracks(one for a ULX binary system with a donor star mass of 8M and a black hole of 20M and the other for a donor star mass of 8M and a black hole of 100M ) and the position of the counterpart of M83 IXO 82. In the calculation of this track, the albedo parameter for the computation of the track was changed from 0.9 to 1 which corresponds to complete reection (no absorbtion) of the incident X-rays. For the position of the counterparts the error in the values of the absolute V band magnitude and colour (B-V) is represented by the error bars.
69
5.0 RESULTS
In the plot in Figure 30, the CMD with the evolutionary tracks for a 8M donor star in a binary system with a black hole of 20M and 100M are given. The position of the observation of the optical counterpart for the source M83 IXO 82 is also shown. It was previously observed in Figures 27 and 28 that the evolutionary tracks for 8M did not intersect the position of the optical counterpart of M83 IXO 82, although it was not far from it. In this plot, the tracks were computed with the modied albedo parameter (fa = 1). This value of the albedo parameter corresponds to complete reection (no absorbtion) of the incident X-rays. The modied tracks are even closer to the counterpart. However, a clear intersection is still not observed. The tracks for these models were computed to show the strength of X-ray irradiation. They may be relevant in a scenario in which X-ray emission is beamed and does not hit the accretion disk and donor surfaces.
70
6.0 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS
6.0 Discussion of the Results

In the previous section, the colour-magnitude diagrams with the optical photometry of the ULX counterparts were plotted with the evolutionary tracks for a system with donor stars of varying masses accreting onto both a stellar mass black hole of 10-20M and massive stellar black hole of 100M . The sources were split into two groups depending on whether nebular extinction data was available for them or not and it can be seen from Table 16 that the B-V colour index has a much higher value for sources in which nebular extinction was not available. The results for each of the sources are discussed in this section. The constraints on the donor mass for sources with nebular extinction in a binary system with a 20M black hole (tracks for donor stars with 30M and 50M are computed for a 10M black hole and are indicated by an *) are summarized in Table 17.
71
Table 17: The possible mass constraints on the donor star for each observation of the ULX counterparts for sources with nebular extinction is given in this table. The mass of the black hole is taken to be 20M (10M for values with *). MS and post-MS indicate whether the donor star is in the main sequence phase or post-main sequence phase. TAMS indicates that the star is in the terminal-age MS phase. No intersection means that no constraints can be placed on the observation based on the computed data. ULX Date B-V Mv Constraints Holmberg II X-1 03/10/2007 05/10/2007 09/10/2007 07/02/2004 07/02/2004 02/09/2005 18/12/2005 22/03/1994 08/04/1994 15/11/2002 21/05/2008 to 09/06/2008 04/04/2009 27/01/1996 08/06/2001 0.24 0.02 0.18 0.02 0.27 0.02 0.42 0.04 0.250.05 0.370.15 0.30.13 0.110.08 0.280.08 0.310.04 0.200.02 0.280.04 0.070.23 0.420.18 5.93 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.88 0.03 6.000.02 5.940.10 5.950.09 6.390.03 6.150.03 6.000.03 4.590.01 6.270.02 7.260.12 7.270.12 30-50M donor star (post-MS)* 25M donor star (post-MS) 50M donor star (post-MS)* No Intersections 3050M donor star (post-MS) No Intersections No Intersections No Intersections 50M donor star (post-MS)* 50M donor star (post-MS)* 20M 50M donor star (post-MS) donor star (post-MS)*
Holmberg IX X-1
IC 342 X-1
M101 ULX-1
NGC 1313 X-2 NGC 5408 X-1 NGC 6946 ULX-1
30M donor star (post-MS)* No Intersections
The constraints on the donor mass for sources with nebular extinction in a binary system with a 100M black hole are summarized in Table 18.
72
Table 18: The possible mass constraints on the donor star for each observation of the ULX counterparts for sources with nebular extinction is given in this table. The mass of the black hole is taken to be 100M . MS and post-MS indicate whether the donor star is in the main sequence phase or post-main sequence phase. TAMS indicates that the star is in the terminal-age MS phase. No intersection means that no constraints can be placed on the observation based on the computed data. No Intersections* indicates that while no intersection was seen on the gure, the counterpart could be consistent with the track of a donor star slightly more massive than 50M . ULX Holmberg II X-1 Date 03/10/2007 05/10/2007 09/10/2007 07/02/2004 07/02/2004 02/09/2005 18/12/2005 22/03/1994 08/04/1994 15/11/2002 21/05/2008 to 09/06/2008 04/04/2009 27/01/1996 08/06/2001 B-V 0.24 0.02 0.18 0.02 0.27 0.02 0.42 0.04 0.250.05 0.370.15 0.30.13 0.110.08 0.280.08 0.310.04 0.200.02 0.280.04 0.070.23 0.420.18 Mv 5.93 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.94 0.01 5.88 0.03 6.000.02 5.940.10 5.950.09 6.390.03 6.150.03 6.000.03 4.590.01 6.270.02 7.260.12 7.270.12 Constraints 50M 30M 50M donor star (MS) donor star (post-MS) donor star (MS)
Holmberg IX X-1
No Intersections 50M donor star (MS) 8-10M 8-10M donor star (post-MS) donor star (post-MS)
IC 342 X-1
M101 ULX-1
30M donor star (post-MS) 50M donor star (MS) 50M donor star (MS) 20M 50M donor star (MS or TAMS) donor star (MS) donor star
NGC 1313 X-2 NGC 5408 X-1 NGC 6946 ULX-1
30M or 50M (post-MS) No Intersections*
The constraints on the donor mass for sources with Galactic extinction in a binary system with a 20M black hole (tracks for donor stars of 30M and 50M are computed for a 10M black hole and are indicated by an *) are summarized in Table 19.
73
Table 19: The possible mass constraints on the donor star for each observation of the ULX counterparts for sources with Galactic extinction is given in this table. The mass of the black hole is taken to be 20M (10M for values with *). MS and post-MS indicate whether the donor star is in the main sequence phase or post-main sequence phase. No intersection means that no constraints can be placed on the observation based on the computed data. ULX Date B-V Mv Constraints M81 ULS1 21/03/2006 27/03/2006 31/01/1995 04/06/2001 25/02/2006 17/10/2005 25/05/2001 08/03/2005 08/08/2008 10/08/2008 13/08/2008 0.110.04 0.220.04 0.060.18 0.130.07 0.260.13 0.070.08 0.170.03 0.120.04 0.350.03 0.230.03 0.200.03 6.260.04 5.990.04 3.910.06 4.010.06 3.110.09 2.900.06 6.980.02 7.100.03 5.570.02 5.620.02 5.690.02 8M 8-12M 10-15M No Intersections No Intersections donor star (MS or post-MS) donor star (MS or post-MS) No Intersections donor star (MS) No Intersections No Intersections 50M donor star (MS) 30M * donor star (post-MS) 25M -30M * donor star (post-MS)
M81 X-6
M83 IXO 82 NGC 2403 X-1 NGC 4559 X-7
NGC 5204 X-1
The constraints on the donor mass for sources with Galactic extinction in a binary system with a 100M black hole are summarized in Table 20.
74
Table 20: The possible mass constraints on the donor star for each observation of the ULX counterparts for sources with Galactic extinction is given in this table. The mass of the black hole is taken to be 100M . MS and post-MS indicate whether the donor star is in the main sequence phase or post-main sequence phase. No intersection means that no constraints can be placed on the observation based on the computed data. ULX Date B-V Mv Constraints M81 ULS1 21/03/2006 27/03/2006 31/01/1995 04/06/2001 25/02/2006 17/10/2005 25/05/2001 08/03/2005 08/08/2008 10/08/2008 13/08/2008 0.110.04 0.220.04 0.060.18 0.130.07 0.260.13 0.070.08 0.170.03 0.120.04 0.350.03 0.230.03 0.200.03 6.260.04 5.990.04 3.910.06 4.010.06 3.110.09 2.900.06 6.980.02 7.100.03 5.570.02 5.620.02 5.690.02 8M 50M 30M 8-12M 10-15M 8-10M 12M donor star (post-MS) donor star (post-MS)
M81 X-6
donor star (MS or post-MS) donor star (MS or post-MS) No Intersections donor star (MS)
M83 IXO 82 NGC 2403 X-1 NGC 4559 X-7
donor star (post-MS) donor star (post-MS) donor star (MS) donor star (MS) donor star (MS)
NGC 5204 X-1
50M 30M 30M
Holmberg II X-1
For the source Holmberg II X-1 it can be stated that if the black hole mass in the ULX system was around 20M then a companion donor star would have to be in a post-main sequence phase and have a mass between 25M to 50M (assuming a 10M black hole) to account for the position of the optical counterpart. In the case of accretion onto a 100M black hole, a 30M (post-MS) or 50M (MS) star would be needed in order for the evolutionary tracks to pass through the available counterpart data. Thanks to the more revised and more accurate photometry reported by Tao et al. (2011), we can improve upon the estimates reported by Patruno & Zampieri (2008). They found that if the accretor in Holmberg II X-1 is a stellar mass black hole then the donor star has to be a post-MS star between 15-30M or a MS of 50M . For a large accretor of 100M , Patruno & Zampieri (2008) write that even a 10M in post-MS phase could account for the observed counterparts. In this study, we have shown that if the black hole in the ULX is 20M then the mass for a donor in the post-MS phase is between 25M to 50M . If the black hole in the ULX is 100M then still a high mass companion star (at least 30M to 50M ) is needed to account for the observed photometric properties of the counterpart.
75
Holmberg IX X-1
For the photometric data of the optical counterpart of Holmberg IX X-1 reported by Tao et al. (2011), it can be stated that if the black hole mass in the ULX system was around 20M then even a very massive companion could not account for the position of the counterpart. Even in the case of accretion onto a 100M black hole there is no evolutionary track which passes through the source. The colour of the star is too blue for any of the tracks to account for its photometric properties. However, for the photometric values of the counterpart obtained by Gris et al. (2011), the position of e the star on the CM diagram is consistent with the tracks for a 30-50M (post-MS) donor star accreting onto a 10M . Interestingly, the counterpart is also consistent with a 50M MS donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole. These results indicate that Holmberg IX X-1 harbours a very massive donor star.
IC 342 X-1
For the source IC 342 X-1 it can be seen that if the black hole mass in the ULX system was around 20M then none of the tracks intersect with the available photometric data of the counterpart. In the case of accretion onto a 100M black hole, an 8M to 10M donor star (in the post-MS phase) would be required in order to account for the available counterpart data. This source requires that the mass of the black hole in the ULX be at least around 100M . In a recent study by Cseh et al.(2012), an upper limit to the mass of the black hole in this ULX has been estimated (by doing a multiband study of the nebula around it) to be 1000M .
M101 ULX-1
For the source M101 ULX-1, the photometric data of the counterpart can be accounted for if the black hole mass in the ULX is a stellar mass black hole of 10M and the donor star has a mass between 20M (with smaller X-ray albedo) and 50M (in the post-MS phase). Also, in the case of accretion onto a 100M black hole, a 30M (post-MS phase) or 50M (MS phase) donor star would be required in order to account for the high magnitude of the counterpart data. Kuntz et al. (2005) have suggested that M101 ULX-1 is a high mass X-ray binary. The results of this study for this source also point towards a high mass companion star (regardless of whether the black hole is 10M or 100M , a 20M to 50 M donor star is required to explain the photometric data of the counterpart).
76
NGC 1313 X-2

If the average values of the colour index and magnitude are taken for all the available quasi-simultaneous observations then an intersection is found with the track of a 20M donor star accreting on to a 20M or 100M black hole. The constrained value of the donor mass for this source is almost consistent with the value obtained by Patruno & Zampieri (2010). Their constrained value for the donor mass is between 12 to 15M . In this study we rule out the possibility of a 12M donor star. The discrepancy between the two results is explained by the revised colour values for the optical counterpart that were used in this study (we took the average colour of the 2008 HST observations, while Patruno & Zampieri (2010) used photometric data from the 2003 HST observation). As it was discussed in subsection 4.1.8, the estimated period of the source is 6 days (Liu et al. 2009, 2012; Zampieri et al. 2012). The orbital period corresponding to the points of intersection can be found by checking the data les generated by the stellar evolution code. For a 20M donor star accreting onto a 20M black hole, the point of intersection of the average value (for the colour index and absolute magnitude) corresponds to an orbital period of 6.7 days. Assuming that the estimated 6 day period is correct, this value indicates that a 20M donor star in a binary system with a 20M black hole is a likely scenario. A scenario involving a 20M (MS) donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole can be ruled out as the points of intersection of the track and the average value corresponds to an orbital period of 1.8 days . The scenario involving a 20M (TAMS) donor star accreting onto a 100M black is very likely as the points of intersections correspond to a orbital periods of 5.85 days and 5.86-6.3 days respectively. The counterparts intersect with the track just when the donor star is entering the post-MS phase. This result is consistent with the estimated optical periodicity (Liu et al. 2009, 2012; Zampieri et al. 2012).
NGC 5408 X-1

For the source NGC 5408 X-1, the photometric data for the counterpart can be accounted for by a binary system in which the donor mass is 50M (post-MS for a 10 M black hole, MS for a black hole of 100M ). This source is one of the few ULXs to show strong variability on short timescales (Strohmayer et al. 2007). The variability along with the spectral properties has been used to estimate the black hole mass. Values in excess of 100M ) (e.g. Casella et al. 2008, Zhou et al. 2010) and smaller than this value (Middleton et al. 2011) have been suggested.
77
NGC 6946 ULX-1

For the source NGC 6946 ULX-1, the 2 observations of the optical counterpart have signicantly dierent values for the colour. One observation gives the value of B-V to be -0.07 and the other is -0.42. For the observation with B-V=-0.42 there are no intersections with the evolution tracks (despite large error bars in the colour). However, considering the large uncertainty in the colour, the position of the counterpart may be consistent with the track of a donor slightly more massive than 50M , if the BH mass is 100M (for 10M the counterpart is too far from the nearest computed track to draw any conclusion). The results also indicate that a high donor mass is needed in order to account for the photometric data of the optical counterpart. Now the results for the sources for which only the Galactic extinction value was available will be discussed.
M81 ULS1
The photometric data for the 2 observations of the optical counterparts for the M81 ULS1 do not intersect with any of the evolutionary tracks for a 10-20M black hole. They have signicantly dierent values for the colour. However, the photometric data can be accounted for by the evolutionary tracks of 8 through 12M (post-MS) donor stars in a binary system with a 100M black hole. This source requires a large value for the mass of the black hole in order to explain the photometric data. As this is an ultraluminous supersoft source, this study also disfavours the interpretation that the compact object in this system could be a white dwarf.
M81 X-6
For the source M81 X-6, the two observations of the optical counterpart intersect with the evolutionary tracks for 8 through 15M (MS or post-MS) donor stars in a binary system with a 20M or a 100M black hole. The consistency of the results for M81 X-6 for both black hole masses makes it dicult to put denitive constraints on the mass of the system. A better result could be obtained for the source if the value of the nebular extinction was known.
78
M83 IXO 82
The photometric data of the optical counterpart for M83 IXO 82 did not intersect with any of the evolutionary tracks for the various donor masses in binary system with a 20M or 100M black hole. For this source, the albedo parameter was modied from 0.9 to 1, to see if the photometric data of the counterpart could be accounted for. The tracks in Figure 30 show the result of this modied parameter. The track for a 8M donor star (in post-MS phase) with a 20M black hole came very close to intersecting the position of the counterpart. An albedo equal to unit corresponds to complete reection (no absorption) of the incident X-rays. This suggests that switching o X-ray irradiation is favoured for M83 IXO 82. This is possible in a scenario in which X-ray emission is beamed and does not hit the accretion disk and donor surfaces. This result appears then to favour some degree of beaming in the emission of this source.
NGC 2403 X-1

For the source NGC 2403 X-1, the observation of the optical counterpart did not intersect any of the tracks for the various donor star masses for either a 20M or 100M black hole. However, in both cases the position of the counterpart is very close to the track of a 8M donor in MS.
NGC 4559 X-7

The 2 observations of the optical counterpart for NGC 4559 X-7 had no intersections with the evolutionary tracks for various donor masses for a 20M black hole. However, the photometric data of the counterpart could be accounted for by evolutionary tracks of 30M and 50M (post MS phase) donor stars in a binary system with a 100M . The photometric data of the counterpart of NGC 4559 X-7 rule out the possibility of having a low mass donor star. Partuno & Zampieri (2008) had shown that the then available photometric data for the same counterpart of NGC 4559-7 considered here (object 1 in their paper) could be explained by a 50M donor star accreting onto a 100M black hole. Our results are fully consistent with their ndings.
NGC 5204 X-1

There is photometric data available for 3 observations of the optical counterpart of NGC 5204 X-1. None of the evolutionary tracks for the various donor masses intersect with the counterpart observation for which the colour index B-V=-0.35. However, such observation falls very close to the track of a 50M donor in MS for both a 10 and 100M black hole. The position of the 2 other observations of the counterpart can
79
be accounted for by a 25M donor star (post-MS phase) and a 20M black hole. The positions can also be accounted for by a 30 M donor star (post-MS phase) and a 10M black hole. For a black hole of a 100M , the photometric data for the two observations is accounted for by a 30M donor star (post-MS phase). These results point towards a massive donor star in the ULX NGC 5204 X-1. Feng & Kaaret (2009) have pointed out that the luminosity, disk size, and temperature of NGC 5204 X-1 suggest that it harbours a compact object more massive than a stellar mass black hole. The results of this study are consistent with this nding as the observations are consistent also with the tracks of a 100M black hole.
80
7.0 CONCLUSIONS
7.0 Conclusions
ULXs are posited to be accreting binary systems with a donor star and a black hole. In this study, we tried to determine constraints for the mass of the black hole for 13 dierent sources (Tao et al. 2011) by modelling their optical emission for various scenarios involving the donor star mass being between 8M to 50M and taking stellar through massive black holes (20M and 100M ). The modelled emission properties were then plotted onto a colour-magnitude diagram with the observed optical counterpart data for each source. The position of the counterpart on the colour-magnitude diagram was then compared with the evolution track for the ULX. If the evolutionary track for a ULX passes through available data for the counterpart then it becomes possible to constrain the mass of the black hole and the donor in the ULX. The main conclusions from the results of this study are: A consistent group of sources has blue colours (Holmberg II X-1, M 101 ULX1, NGC 5408 X-1, NGC 6946 ULX-1, NGC 4559 X-7, NGC 5204 X-1) and is consistent with a massive black hole (100M ) and donors of 25 50M , in agreement with previous ndings. The majority of these sources (exceptions are NGC 4559 X-7 and NGC 6946 X-1) are also consistent with the tracks of donors in the same mass range accreting onto a stellar mass black hole(10-20M ). In NGC 5408 X-1 and NGC 6946 ULX-1 the donor may be slightly more massive than 50M . A smaller group of sources has redder colours (IC 342 X-1, M 81 ULS1, M81 X-6, NGC 2403 X-1) and is consistent with a massive black hole and donors of 8 15M . M 81 X-6 and NGC 2403 X-1 are also consistent with the tracks of donors in the same mass range accreting onto a stellar-mass black hole. When the agreement is with a post-MS phase, if there is a nebula around the ULX, the source probably underwent case AB mass transfer with a rst episode occurring during MS (see Patruno & Zampieri 2008, 2010). The rst contact phase during MS is suciently long to inject the required energy in the bubble nebula. Using the photometry of Tao et al. (2011), Holmberg IX X-1 appears to be too blue to be consistent with any of the computed tracks. We suggest that, because of the signicant variability of the nebular extinction, the latter may have been slightly overestimated by Tao et al. (2011). On the other hand, photometry by Gris et al. (2011) indicates that Holmberg IX X-1 is consistent with a 30-50M e donor star.
81
7.0 CONCLUSIONS
In M83 IXO 82, either there is no irradiation with beamed emission and accretion onto a stellar mass black hole or the donor is less massive than 8M . NGC 1313 X-2 is consistent with the evolutionary track for a 20M donor star in a binary system with either a stellar-mass black hole or a massive black hole. Furthermore, the value of the orbital period obtained from these results (in the case of accretion onto a 100M black hole) was between 5.85 to 6.3 days. This value is in agreement with the 6 days orbital period estimated from the optical light curve of NGC 1313 X-2 (Zampieri et al. 2012). The sample of observations for ULX counterparts taken in this study showed that the majority of sources had B-V colour index value between -0.30 and -0.10. This shows that there were more blue (hot) counterparts than red (cool) counterparts. The results show that most of the blue counterparts are very massive MS stars. On the other hand, red counterparts are less massive and are usually in the post-MS phase. All the counterparts can essentially be accounted for by evolutionary tracks with a massive black hole. The results also show that the tracks with a stellar mass black hole cannot account for all the ULXs studied in this thesis. However, results for the source M83 IXO 82 suggest that there could be some degree of beaming. In such a scenario, a stellar-mass black hole could account for the high X-ray luminosities of this ULX.
82
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Master&#39;s Thesis Abbas Askar

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Master&#39;s Thesis Abbas Askar

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University of Padova Department of Physics and Astronomy

Optical Counterparts of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

University of Padova Department of Physics and Astronomy

Optical Counterparts of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources

To my parents and my younger brother

1.1 Brief Introduction to ULXs

1.1 Brief Introduction to ULXs

4cGM mp M 1.38 1038 ( )erg s1 T M

1.1 Brief Introduction to ULXs

1.2 Motivation to study ULXs

of ULXs is discussed in more detail.

1.2 Motivation to study ULXs

1.3 Background & Aims of this Thesis

1.3 Background & Aims of this Thesis

1.4 Contents of the Thesis

1.4 Contents of the Thesis

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.0 ULX Phenomenology

2.1 X-ray Emission from ULXs

2.1 X-ray Emission from ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.1 X-ray Emission from ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.2 Models of ULXs

3. Intermediate Mass Black Holes (M 102 104 M )

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.2.1 Emission Scenarios

1.3 1038 3 MBH (1 + ln m)( ) erg s1 1 b 5 M

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

by Feng & Soria (2011).

Mild Beaming with Super-Eddington Accretion

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

Quasi-isotropic Eddington Luminosity

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

Quasi-isotropic sub-Eddington Luminosity

2.2.2 Ordinary Stellar Mass Black Holes

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.2.3 Massive Stellar Black Holes

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.2.4 Intermediate Mass Black Holes

2.2 Models of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

Ordinary Stellar Mass BH

2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.3 X-ray spectra and Variability of ULXs

2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.3 X-ray Spectra and Variability of ULXs

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.4 ULX Environments

2.0 ULX PHENOMENOLOGY

2.4 ULX Environments

Master's Thesis Abbas Askar

Master's Thesis Abbas Askar