2009ApJ...705.1632P

X-ray sources in spiral galaxies can be approximately classified into bulge and disk populations. The bulge (or hard) sources have X-ray colors which are consistent with low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) but the disk sources have softer colors suggesting a different type of source. In this paper, we further study the properties of hard and soft sources by constructing color-segregated X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) for these two populations. Since the number of sources in any given galaxy is small, we co-added sources from a sample of nearby, face-on spiral galaxies observed by Chandra as a Large Project in Cycle 2. We use simulations to carefully correct the XLF for completeness. The composite hard source XLF is not consistent with a single-power-law fit. At luminosities L_x> 3x10³⁸ erg/s, it is well fitted by a power law with a slope that is consistent with that found for sources in elliptical galaxies by Kim & Fabbiano. This supports the suggestion that the hard sources are dominated by LMXBs. In contrast, the high-luminosity XLF of soft sources has a slope similar to the "universal" high-mass X-ray binary XLF. Some of these sources are stellar-mass black hole binaries accreting at high rates in a thermal/steep power-law state. The softest sources have inferred disk temperatures that are considerably lower than found in galactic black holes binaries. These sources are not well understood, but some may be super-soft ultra-luminous X-ray sources in a quiescent state as suggested by Soria & Ghosh.