Swift-XRT six-year monitoring of the ultraluminous X-ray source M33 X-8

Abstract

Context. The long-term evolution of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) with their spectral and luminosity variations in time give important clues on the nature of ULX and on the accretion process that powers them. <BR /> Aims: We report here the results of a Swift-XRT six-year monitoring campaign of the closest example of a persistent ULX, M33 X-8, that extends the monitoring of this source in the soft X-rays to 16 years. The luminosity of this source is a few 10<SUP>39</SUP> erg s<SUP>-1</SUP>, marking the faint end of the ULX luminosity function. <BR /> Methods: We analyzed the set of 15 observations collected during the Swift monitoring. We searched for differences in the spectral parameters at different observing epochs, adopting several models commonly used to fit the X-ray spectra of ULX. <BR /> Results: The source exhibits flux variations of about 30%. No significant spectral variations are observed during the monitoring. The average 0.5-10 keV spectrum can be well described by a thermal model, either in the form of a slim disk, or as a combination of a Comptonized corona and a standard accretion disk.