Bibcode
DOI
Gutiérrez, C. M.; López-Corredoira, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 622, Issue 2, pp. L89-L92.
Advertised on:
4
2005
Journal
Citations
22
Refereed citations
20
Description
We present spectroscopic observations of six optical counterparts of
ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) around nearby galaxies. The spectra
of the six objects show the presence of broad emission features. The
identification of these allow us to classify all of the objects as
quasars at higher redshift than their assigned parent galaxy. This is
one of the first and largest identifications of such objects using
unambigous optical spectral features. These results, in conjuction with
previous similar identifications of other sources, indicate that
high-redshift quasars represent an important fraction of cataloged ULX
sources. We estimate the density of such sources and compare this with
expectations for a population of randomly distributed background
quasars.