Authors: Roberto Soria, Mari Kolehmainen, Alister W. Graham, Douglas A. Swartz, Mihoko Yukita, Christian Motch, Thomas H. Jarrett, James C. A. Miller-Jones, Richard M. Plotkin, Thomas J. Maccarone, Laura Ferrarese, Alexander Guest, Ariane Lancon
Abstract: We present an analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) population in 75 Virgo cluster late-type galaxies, including all those with a star formation rate ≳ 1 Msolar/yr and a representative sample of the less star-forming ones. This study is based on 110 observations obtained over 20 years with the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced Camera for Imaging Spectroscopy. As part of a Large Chandra Program, new observations were obtained for 52 of these 75 galaxies. The data are complete to a sensitivity of about 1039 erg/s, with a typical detection limit of about 3×1038 erg/s for the majority of the sources. The catalogue contains about 80 ULXs (0.3-10 keV luminosity >1039 erg/s), and provides their location, observed flux, de-absorbed luminosity, and (for the 25 most luminous ones) simple X-ray spectral properties. We discuss the ULX luminosity function in relation to the mass and star formation rate of the sample galaxies. We show that recent models of low-mass plus high-mass X-ray binary populations (scaling with stellar mass and star formation rate, respectively) are mostly consistent with our observational results. We tentatively identify the most luminous X-ray source in the sample (a source in IC 3322A with LX ≈ 6×1040 erg/s) as a recent supernova or its young remnant. The properties of the sample galaxies (morphologies, stellar masses, star formation rates, total X-ray luminosities from their point-source population) are also summarised.