We present the results of a high-resolution X-ray imaging study of the stellar population in the Galactic massive star-forming region RCW 49 and its central OB association Westerlund 2. We obtained a ~40ks X-ray image of a ~17'x17' field using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and deep NIR images using the Infrared Survey Facility in a concentric ~8.3'x8.3' region. We detected 468 X-ray sources and identified optical, NIR, and Spitzer MIR counterparts for 379 of them.
Charge exchange (CX) has emerged in X-ray emission modeling as a significant process that must be considered in many astrophysical environments- particularly comets. Comets host an interaction between solar wind ions and cometary neutrals to promote solar wind charge exchange (SWCX). X-ray observatories provide astronomers and astrophysicists with data for many X-ray emitting comets that are impossible to accurately model without reliable CX data. Here, we utilize a streamlined set of computer programs that incorporate the multi-channel Landau-Zener theory and a cascade model for X-ray emission to generate cross sections and X-ray line ratios for a variety of bare and non-bare ion single electron capture (SEC) collisions. Namely, we consider collisions between the solar wind constituent bare and H-like ions of C, N, O, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, and Si and the cometary neutrals H2O, CO, CO2, OH, and O. To exemplify the application of this data, we model the X-ray emission of Comet C/2000 WM1 (linear) using the CX package in SPEX and find excellent agreement with observations made with the XMM-Newton RGS detector. Our analyses show that the X-ray intensity is dominated by SWCX with H, while H2O plays a secondary role. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that CX cross sections have been implemented into a X-ray spectral fitting package to determine the H to H2O ratio in cometary atmospheres. The CX data sets are incorporated into the modeling packages SPEX and Kronos.
We present X-ray Luminosity Distributions (XLDs) of late-type members (dF, dG, dK, dM) of the Blanco 1 cluster, based on ROSAT-HRI data and new astrometric-photometric membership obtained from the GSC-II project. For the first time we present the XLD of dM stars of this cluster. The high metallicity of Blanco 1 allows us to investigate the role of chemical composition on the coronal emission of late-type stars. Comparison between X-ray Luminosity Distributions of Blanco 1 and Pleiades, NGC 2516 and {alpha} Per suggests a possible metallicity effect in dM stars.
We present a catalogue of X-ray luminosities for 401 early-type galaxies, of which 136 are based on newly analysed ROSAT PSPC pointed observations (Cat. <IX/30>). The remaining luminosities are taken from the literature and converted to a common energy band, spectral model and distance scale. Using this sample we fit the L_X_/L_B_ relation for early-type galaxies and find a best-fit slope for the catalogue of ~2.2. We demonstrate the influence of group-dominant galaxies on the fit and present evidence that the relation is not well modelled by a single power-law fit. We also derive estimates of the contribution to galaxy X-ray luminosities from discrete-sources and conclude that they provide L_(discrete-source-contribution)_/L_B_~29.5erg/s/L_B{sun}_. We compare this result with luminosities from our catalogue. Lastly, we examine the influence of environment on galaxy X-ray luminosity and on the form of the L_X_/L_B_ relation. We conclude that although environment undoubtedly affects the X-ray properties of individual galaxies, particularly those in the centres of groups and clusters, it does not change the nature of whole populations.
We use ROSAT All Sky Survey broad-band X-ray images and the optical clusters identified from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 to estimate the X-ray luminosities around ~65000 candidate clusters with masses >~10^13^h-1^M_{sun}_ based on an optical to X-ray (OTX) code we develop. We obtain a catalogue with X-ray luminosity for each cluster. This catalogue contains 817 clusters (473 at redshift z<=0.12) with signal-to-noise ratio >3 in X-ray detection. We find about 65% of these X-ray clusters have their most massive member located near the X-ray flux peak; for the rest 35%, the most massive galaxy is separated from the X-ray peak, with the separation following a distribution expected from a Navarro-Frenk-White profile. We investigate a number of correlations between the optical and X-ray properties of these X-ray clusters, and find that the cluster X-ray luminosity is correlated with the stellar mass (luminosity) of the clusters, as well as with the stellar mass (luminosity) of the central galaxy and the mass of the halo, but the scatter in these correlations is large. Comparing the properties of X-ray clusters of similar halo masses but having different X-ray luminosities, we find that massive haloes with masses >~10^14^h^-1^M_{sun}_ contain a larger fraction of red satellite galaxies when they are brighter in X-ray. An opposite trend is found in central galaxies in relative low-mass haloes with masses <~10^14^h^-1^M_{sun}_ where X-ray brighter clusters have smaller fraction of red central galaxies. Clusters with masses >~10^14^h^-1^M_{sun}_ that are strong X-ray emitters contain many more low-mass satellite galaxies than weak X-ray emitters. These results are also confirmed by checking X-ray clusters of similar X-ray luminosities but having different characteristic stellar masses. A cluster catalogue containing the optical properties of member galaxies and the X-ray luminosity is available at http://gax.shao.ac.cn/data/Group.html.
We use a 440.5ks Chandra observation of the ~500Myr old open cluster M37 to derive the X-ray luminosity functions of its <=1.2M_{sun}_ stars. Combining detections of 162 M37 members with upper limits for 160 non-detections, we find that its G, K, and M stars have a similar median (0.5-7keV) X-ray luminosity L_X_=10^29.0^erg/s, whereas the L_X_-to-bolometric-luminosity ratio (L_X_/L_bol_) indicates that M stars are more active than G and K stars by ~1 order of magnitude at 500Myr. To characterize the evolution of magnetic activity in low-mass stars over their first ~600Myr, we consolidate X-ray and optical data from the literature for stars in six other open clusters: from youngest to oldest they are, the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), NGC 2547, NGC 2516, the Pleiades, NGC 6475, and the Hyades. For these, we homogenize the conversion of instrumental count rates to L_X_ by applying the same one-temperature emission model as for M37, and obtain masses using the same empirical mass-absolute magnitude relation (except for the ONC). We find that for G and K stars X-ray activity decreases ~2 orders of magnitude over their first 600Myr, and for M stars, ~1.5. The decay rate of the median L_X_ follows the relation L_X_{propto}t^b^, where b=-0.61+/-0.12 for G stars, -0.82+/-0.16 for K stars, and -0.40+/-0.17 for M stars. In L_X_/L_bol_ space, the slopes are -0.68+/-0.12, -0.81+/-0.19, and -0.61+/-0.12, respectively. These results suggest that for low-mass stars the age-activity relation steepens after ~625Myr, consistent with the faster decay in activity observed in solar analogs at t>1Gyr.
We demonstrate that individual elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies form a continuous X-ray luminosity-velocity dispersion (L_X_-{sigma}) relation. Our samples of 280 clusters and 57 galaxies have L_X_ {prop.to}{sigma}^4.4^ and L_X_{prop.to}{sigma}^10^, respectively. This unified L_X_-{sigma} relation spans 8 orders of magnitude in L_X_ and is fully consistent with the observed and theoretical luminosity-temperature scaling laws. Our results support the notion that galaxies and clusters of galaxies are the luminous tracers of similar dark matter halos.
We present a photometric and spectroscopic study of stellar populations in the X-ray-luminous cluster of galaxies RX J0142.0+2131 at z=0.280. This paper analyzes the results of high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopy, as well as g'-, r'-, and i'-band imaging, using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini North.
Using archival Chandra observations with a total effective exposure of 323ks, we derive an updated catalog of point sources in the bulge globular cluster M28. The catalog contains 502 X-ray sources within an area of ~475arcmin^2^, and more than 90% of these sources are first detected in this cluster. We find significant dips in the radial distribution profiles of X-ray sources in M28, and the projected distance and width of the distribution dip for bright (L_X_>~4.5x10^30^erg/s) X-ray sources are larger than for faint (L_X_<~4.5x10^30^erg/s) sources. Fitting with the "generalized King model" gives a slightly larger average mass for the bright sources (1.30+/-0.15M_{sun}_) than for the faint ones (1.09+/-0.14M_{sun}_), which supports a universal delay in mass segregation between heavy objects in globular clusters. We show that the dynamical age of M28 is comparable to that of Terzan 5 and much smaller than that of 47 Tuc, but M28 is evolving faster (i.e., with a shorter two-body relaxation timescale) than 47 Tuc. These features may suggest an acceleration effect of cluster dynamical evolution by tidal shock in M28. Besides, we find an abnormal deficiency of X-ray sources in the central region (R<~1.5') of M28 compared with its outskirts, which indicates that M28 may have suffered an early phase of primordial binary disruption within its central region, and the mass segregation effect will erase such a phenomenon as clusters evolve to an older dynamical age.
The combination of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP; Green et al. 2004ApJS..150...43G) currently offers the largest and most homogeneously selected sample of nearby galaxies for investigating the relation between X-ray nuclear emission, nebular line emission, black hole masses, and properties of the associated stellar populations. We provide X-ray spectral fits and valid uncertainties for all the galaxies with counts ranging from 2 to 1325 (mean 76, median 19). We present here novel constraints that both X-ray luminosity L_X_ and X-ray spectral energy distribution bring to the galaxy evolutionary sequence HII->Seyfert/Transition Object->LINER->Passive suggested by optical data.
