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We present an optical and X-ray study of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC5474 X-1. From the analysis of the Chandra and Swift data we found that the source X-ray flux changed by more than 2 orders of magnitude within 3.5 years. In the bright state with a peak luminosity of $1.3\times 10^{40}$ erg/s the source showed a very hard spectrum with $\Gamma \lesssim 1$. We have found no evidence for coherent pulsations. The first observation of this area with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) carried out in the F336W filter (U band) 14 months after the X-ray flux was observed to be maximal, has revealed that the source was bright in the optical range as well. Later the source faded in both the ranges, the optical variability amplitude reached 2.8 mag. Subsequent deeper HST observations made it possible to identify a stellar cluster of about 1 Gyr in the object place, which claims to be the parent for NGC5474 X-1 However, the presence of stars with ages of $\sim10$ Myr within 300 pc around the ULX does not completely exclude the possibility that NGC5474 X-1 is a relatively young object. Comparing the source properties with other ULXs, we noticed the similarity to both the known neutron-star ULXs and the transient ULXs that are thought to be accreting black holes., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables

We report the identification of the optical counterpart to the transient ultraluminuos X-ray source in the blue dwarf galaxy UGC6456 (VII Zw 403). The source is highly variable in both the X-ray (more 100 times, 0.3-10 keV) and optical (more 3 times, V band) ranges. The peak X-ray luminosity of UGC6456 ULX exceeds $10^{40}$ erg/s; the absolute magnitude when the source is optically bright is M$_V = -8.24\pm0.11$, which makes this source one of the brightest ULXs in the optical range. We found a correlation between the optical and X-ray fluxes (with a coefficient of $0.9\pm 0.3$), which may indicate that the optical emission is produced by re-processing of the X-rays in outer parts of the optically-thick wind coming from the supercritical accretion disk. Optical spectra of UGC6456 ULX show broad and variable hydrogen and helium emission lines, which also confirms the presence of the strong wind., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure, 1 table. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

We report the identification of the possible optical counterparts of five out of seven Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) in NGC 4490/4485 galaxy pair. Using archival Hubble Space Telescope ({\it HST}) imaging data, we identified a single optical candidate for two ULXs (X-4 and X-7) and multiple optical candidates for the other three ULXs (X-2, X-3 and X-6) within $\sim$ $0\farcs2$ error radius at the 90\% confidence level. Of the two remaining ULXs, X-1 has no {\it HST} imaging data and photometry could not be performed due to the position of X-5 in NGC4490. Absolute magnitudes ($M_{V}$) of the optical candidates lie between $-5.7$ and $-3.8$. Color-Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) have been used to investigate the properties of counterparts and their environments. The locations of the counterparts of X-2, X-4, and X-6 suggest possible association with nearby group of stars while others have no association with a star cluster or group of stars. For comparison purposes, we analyzed previously unused three archival XMM-Newton observations. The long-term X-ray light curves of the sources (except transient X-7) show variability by a factor of three in a time scale more than a decade. The use of disk blackbody model for the mass of the compact objects indicates that these objects might have masses most likely in the range 10$-$15 $M_{\sun}$., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, submitted to ApJ

The origin of Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies whose X-ray luminosities exceed those of the brightest black holes in our Galaxy by hundreds and thousands of times is mysterious. The most popular models for the ULXs involve either intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) or stellar-mass black holes accreting at super-Eddington rates. Here we review the ULX properties, their X-ray spectra indicate a presence of hot winds in their accretion disks supposing the supercritical accretion. However, the strongest evidences come from optical spectroscopy. The spectra of the ULX counterparts are very similar to that of SS 433, the only known supercritical accretor in our Galaxy., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the "14th Marcel Grossmann Meeting" (Rome, July 12 - 18, 2015). Comments on optical spectra have been added

The black hole mass and accretion rate in Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies, whose X-ray luminosities exceed those of the brightest black holes in our Galaxy by hundreds and thousands of times$^{1,2}$, is an unsolved problem. Here we report that all ULXs ever spectroscopically observed have about the same optical spectra apparently of WNL type (late nitrogen Wolf-Rayet stars) or LBV (luminous blue variables) in their hot state, which are very scarce stellar objects. We show that the spectra do not originate from WNL/LBV type donors but from very hot winds from the accretion discs with nearly normal hydrogen content, which have similar physical conditions as the stellar winds from these stars. The optical spectra are similar to that of SS 433, the only known supercritical accretor in our Galaxy$^{3}$, although the ULX spectra indicate a higher wind temperature. Our results suggest that ULXs with X-ray luminosities of $\sim 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ must constitute a homogeneous class of objects, which most likely have supercritical accretion discs., Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Published in Nature Physics, v. 11, p. 551 (2015)

We study a stochastic variability of SS433 in the $10^{-4} - 5\times 10^{-2}$ Hz frequency range based on RXTE data, and on simultaneous observations with RXTE and optical telescopes. We find that the cross-correlation functions and power spectra depend drastically on the precession phase of the supercritical accretion disc. When the wind funnel of the disc is maximally open to the observer, a flat part emerges in the power spectrum; a break is observed at the frequency $1.7\times10^{-3}$ Hz, with a power-law index $\beta \approx 1.67$ at higher frequencies. The soft emission forming mostly in the jets, lags behind the hard and optical emission. When the observer does not see the funnel and jets (the `edge-on' disc), the power spectrum is described by a single power-law with $\beta \approx 1.34$ and no correlations between X-ray ranges are detected. We investigated two mechanisms to explain the observed variability at the open disc phase, 1) reflection of radiation at the funnel wall (X-rays and optical) and 2) the gas cooling in the jets (X-rays only). The X-ray variability is determined by the contribution of both mechanisms, however the contribution of the jets is much higher. We found that the funnel size is $(2-2.5)\times10^{12}$ cm, and the opening angle is $\vartheta_f\sim 50^\circ$. X-ray jets may consist of three fractions with different densities: $8\times10^{13}$, $3\times10^{13}$ and $5\times10^{11}$ cm$^{-3}$, with most of the jet's mass falling within the latter fraction. We suppose that revealed flat part in the power spectrum may be related to an abrupt change in the disc structure and viscous time-scale at the spherization radius, because the accretion disc becomes thick at this radius, $h/r \sim 1$. The extent of the flat spectrum depends on the variation of viscosity at the spherization radius., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, to appear in MNRAS