ULTRA-LUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCES IN THE BARRED SPIRAL GALAXY NGC 1672

The two veryluminous ULXs (LX greater than 2E39 erg/s) in NGC 1672 arepositioned precisely at the ends of the nuclear bar. The most luminous ULXs arethe most difficult to explain as .normal. Xray binaries, and so are likely ULXcandidates for IMBHs. We propose a detailed study, for the first time, of theXray spectra of these two fascinating ULXs, to study their spectral featuresand compare with ULX model predictions. A comparison with XMMNewton Xrayspectra of ULXs in nonbarred spirals will allow an important test to see ifULXs in spiral bars have unique spectral properties. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]