Ultraluminous X-ray sources - X-ray astronomy - multi-wavelength astronomy - black holes - neutron stars - accretion

This project will seek to deepen our understanding of the nature and phenomenology of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs).

We will use the extensive observational archives of the current fleet of X-ray observatories (XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, NuSTAR etc.) and new observations where available to further study the X-ray temporal and spectral properties, and multi-wavelength counterparts, of new samples of ULXs.

These samples will be extracted from the most recent ULX catalogues, including from the new eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS) catalogues that we have pre-publication access to.

The data will be used to address questions of the demographics of ULXs, such as whether firmer limits can be placed on the fraction of ULXs that harbour neutron star/black hole accretors; and on the physics of accretion in ULXs, such as whether accretion geometry or accretion rate dominate the observational properties of ULXs.