A Chandra Virgo cluster survey of spiral galaxies. I. Introduction to
  the survey and a new ULX sample
  We present an analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) population in
75 Virgo cluster late-type galaxies, including all those with a star formation
rate >~ 1 M_{sun}/yr and a representative sample of the less star-forming ones.
This study is based on 110 observations obtained over 20 years with the Chandra
X-ray Observatory Advanced Camera for Imaging Spectroscopy. As part of a Large
Chandra Program, new observations were obtained for 52 of these 75 galaxies.
The data are complete to a sensitivity of about 10^{39} erg/s, with a typical
detection limit of about 3 x 10^{38} erg/s for the majority of the sources. The
catalogue contains about 80 ULXs (0.3-10 keV luminosity >10^{39} erg/s), and
provides their location, observed flux, de-absorbed luminosity, and (for the 25
most luminous ones) simple X-ray spectral properties. We discuss the ULX
luminosity function in relation to the mass and star formation rate of the
sample galaxies. We show that recent models of low-mass plus high-mass X-ray
binary populations (scaling with stellar mass and star formation rate,
respectively) are mostly consistent with our observational results. We
tentatively identify the most luminous X-ray source in the sample (a source in
IC 3322A with L_{X} ~ 6 x 10^{40} erg/s) as a recent supernova or its young
remnant. The properties of the sample galaxies (morphologies, stellar masses,
star formation rates, total X-ray luminosities from their point-source
population) are also summarised.
