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At least 253 records · Page 14

UBV photometry of hot DA white dwarfs

Johnson UBV photometry has been obtained photoelectrically for a set of DA white dwarfs with effective temperatures greater than 20,000 K and for the AM Her type binary HO538 + 608. Most of the white dwarfs lie within existing Einstein IPC or EXOSAT LE soft X-ray fields, therefore they are of interest as potential serendipitous soft X-ray sources. In addition, high dispersion spectroscopy has been used to differentiate seven of these objects to be subdwarfs.

Kidder, K. M.↗

A search for periodicities in the X-ray emission from cataclysmic variables

Results are reported from a search for periodicities in the X-ray emission from cataclysmic variables observed with the Einstein Observatory's IPC at 0.16-3.5 keV and 0.01-2.5 Hz. Power spectra are shown for 51 observations of 31 systems, and upper limits are derived to the pulse fractions of signals that are not detected. The majority of systems show no coherent periodicities in their X-ray emission, which is consistent with a model in which the X-rays are produced in a disk/white-dwarf boundary layer.

Eracleous, Michael↗

Dust from early galaxies and the X-ray background radiation

The effects of the scattering of cosmic X-ray background photons by dusty foreground galaxies are explored, assuming the X-rays themselves arise in discrete sources. The effective angle of scattering is about 1-10 arcmin in the 1-3 keV band, which can lead to a decrease in the spatial fluctuations of the background observed with an IPC-like imaging device with about 1 arcmin resolution. This can reduce the number of discrete sources required to explain the smoothness of the background to values greater than about 1000/sq deg. The effect may be stronger in the direction of distant clusters of galaxies, or if distant galaxies are much dustier than assumed here.

Rudak, B.↗

Small-scale fluctuations of the X-ray background

Fluctuations of the diffuse X-ray background are investigated using the Einstein Observatory Deep Survey data. Small angular-scale variations of the numbers of counts in the energy range 0.8-3.5 keV in the central 32 x 32 sq arcmin of the IPC are analyzed by means of the two-point correlation function. It is shown that detector modulation contributes substantially to the observed fluctuations. Instrumental effects are estimated and subtracted from the raw observations. The residual fluctuations are used to estimate the log N-log S relation of the X-ray sources below the Einstein sensitivity limit. Taking into account numerous uncertainties involved in this analysis, it is shown that the amplitude of fluctuations observed in the Deep Survey data is consistent with a relatively small number of sources producing the X-ray background.

Soltan, A. M.↗

The detection of X-rays from the hot interstellar medium of the Large Magellanic Cloud

A comprehensive reanalysis is presented of the Einstein IPC data base on the LMC, and a number of new algorithms are used to improve the reliability of the point source detection in this crowded region and to produce the first large-scale map of diffuse emission free from the effects of solar scattered X-rays and cosmic-ray particles. Algorithms described in detail include a technique to decontaminate fields containing solar scattered flux, a mechanism for obtaining a spectrum-weighted vignetting function, and a source excision and smoothing algorithm which results in a diffuse map of uniform statistical quality. A catalog of discrete X-rays sources in the direction of the LMC is presented which contains 33 new sources and eliminates a number of spurious and/or marginal directions from previous lists. A possible detection of the long-sought shadowing effect on the cosmic X-ray background produced by cold LMC gas is reported.

Wang, Q.↗

The diffuse soft X-ray background as seen with the Einstein Observatory

A systematic survey of the diffuse soft X-ray background as seen directly with the Einstein Observatory is presented. With the aid of 1633 selected 1 x 1 deg fields of view obtained by the IPC to provide about 5-percent sky coverage, with some bias toward the Galactic plane, the background in the 0.16-3.5 keV spectral region was spatially resolved on this angular scale. Maps of the background are characterized and produced at different energies within the Einstein passband. It is confirmed that the Galactic ridge is not present at energies below 0.33 keV and it is demonstrated that the appearance of the ridge above this energy is not due to hard Galactic sources with a flux above 10 exp -13 ergs/sq cm/s. A southern Galactic region is identified, with l between 80 and 180 deg and b less than -5 deg, where the mean background intensity has the lowest value and is homogeneous within better than 9 percent. The implications of these results for the Galactic structure and for the nature of the extragalactic X-ray background are discussed.

Micela, G.↗

X-ray emission from starburst galaxies

The results are reported of an investigation of X-ray emission from a sample of 53 IRAS-selected candidate starburst galaxies. Superposed soft and hard X-ray emission from these galaxies in the Einstein-IPC and HEAO-1 A-2 and A-4 energy bands, which span 0.5 to 160 keV, is detected at the 99.6 percent confidence level, after allowing for confusion noise in the HEAO-1 data. Above 15 keV the confidence level is 97 percent. The combined spectrum is flat, with a (photon) power-law index of 1.0 +/- 0.3. The contribution of the population of sources represented by this sample to the 3-50 keV residual cosmic X-ray background is estimated to be at least about 4 percent assuming no evolution. Moderate evolution, for which there is some observational evidence, increases this fractional contribution to about 26 percent.

Rephaeli, Yoel↗

Absorption of the x ray background by the large magellanic cloud

Soft x ray flux of extragalactic origin should be partially absorbed during passage through the Large Magellanic Cloud. Past attempts to measure this absorption have been frustrated by the LMC's intrinsic x ray emission. New calibration techniques were developed to enable precise (within 5 pct.) measurement of the flux and spectrum of diffuse x rays detected by the Einstein Observatory IPC. These techniques were used to measure the absorption of extragalactic flux by neutral gas in the LMC, and to determine that at least 50 pct. of the observed flux in the 0.16 to 2 keV band is of extragalactic origin.

Hamilton, Thomas T.↗

Generation of complete source samples from the Slew Survey

The Einstein Slew Survey consists of 819 bright X-ray sources, of which 636 (or 78 percent) are identified with counterparts in standard catalogs. We argue for the importance of bright X-ray surveys, and compare the slew results to the ROSAT all-sky survey. Also, we discuss statistical techniques for minimizing confusion in arcminute error circles in digitized data. We describe the 238 Slew Survey AGN, clusters, and BL Lac objects identified to date and their implications for logN-logS and source evolution studies. Also given is a catalog of 1075 sources detected in the Einstein Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) Slew Survey of the X-ray sky. Five hundred fifty-four of these sources were not previously known as X-ray sources.

Schachter, Jonathan↗

Coronal X rays from single, magnetic white dwarfs - A search and probable detection

X-ray emission from a sample of five nearby (6-20 pc), strongly magnetic (10-200 MG), relatively cool (6000-14,000 K), single white dwarfs, two of which may possess coronae was explored. One star (GR 290) at better than 99-percent confidence is detected and upper limits from Einstein Observatory IPC data for four others are given. The detected luminosities and limits are in the range 1.4-12.5 x 10 exp 27 ergs/s.

Arnaud, Keith A.↗

An X-ray catalog and atlas of galaxies

An X-ray catalog and atlas of galaxies observed with the Einstein Observatory imaging instruments (IPC and HRI) are presented. The catalog comprises 493 galaxies, including targets of pointed observations, and RSA or RC2 galaxies serendipitously included in Einstein fields. A total of 450 of these galaxies were imaged well within the instrumental fields, resulting in 238 detections and 2123 sigma upper limits. The other galaxies were either at the edge of the visible field of view or confused with other X-ray sources. For these a rough measure of their X-ray emission is also given. The atlas shows X-ray contour maps of detected galaxies superposed on optical photographs and gives azimuthally averaged surface brightness profiles of galaxies detected with a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Fabbiano, G.↗

The X-ray spectra of galaxies. I - Spectral fits of individual galaxies and X-ray colors

The X-ray spectra of normal galaxies is investigated systematically by using the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) data in the Einstein data bank. In addition to the standard model fitting technique, X-ray colors are introduced in order to extract spectral information from the fainter X-ray sources. Spectral parameters for 43 galaxies and X-ray colors for 127 galaxies are presented.

Kim, D.-W.↗

Semiempirical limits on the thermal conductivity of intracluster gas

A semiempirical method for establishing lower limits on the thermal conductivity of hot gas in clusters of galaxies is described. The method is based on the observation that the X-ray imaging data (e.g., Einstein IPC) for clusters are well described by the hydrostatic-isothermal beta model, even for cooling flow clusters beyond about one core radius. In addition, there are strong indications that noncooling flow clusters (like the Coma Cluster) have a large central region (up to several core radii) of nearly constant gas temperature. This suggests that thermal conduction is an effective means of transporting and redistributing the thermal energy of the gas. This in turn has implications for the extent to which magnetic fields in the cluster are effective in reducing the thermal conductivity of the gas. Time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations for the gas in the Coma Cluster under two separate evolutionary scenarios are presented. One scenario assumes that the cluster potential is static and that the gas has an initial adiabatic distribution. The second scenario uses an evolving cluster potential. These models along with analytic results show that the thermal conductivity of the gas in the Coma Cluster cannot be less than 0.1 of full Spitzer conductivity. These models also show that high gas conductivity assists rather than hinders the development of radiative cooling in the central regions of clusters.

David, Laurence P.↗

Quasar x-ray spectra revisited

A sample of 45 quasars observed by the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) on the Einstein satellite is used to re-examine the relationship between the soft (0.2-3.5 keV) X-ray energy index and radio-loudness. We found the following: (1) the tendency for radio-loud quasars to have systematically flatter X-ray slopes than radio-quiet quasars (RQQ's) is confirmed with the soft X-ray excess having negligible effect; (2) there is a tendency for the flatness of the X-ray slope to correlate with radio core-dominance for radio-loud quasars, suggesting that a component of the X-ray emission is relativistically beamed; (3) for the RQQ's the soft X-ray slopes, with a mean of approximately 1.0, are consistent with the slopes found at higher energies (2-10 keV) although steeper than those observed for Seyfert 1 galaxies (also 2-10 keV) where the reflection model gives a good fit to the data; (4) the correlation of FeII emission line strength with X-ray energy index is confirmed for radio-quiet quasars using a subset of 18 quasars. The radio-loud quasars show no evidence for a correlation. This relation suggests a connection between the ionizing continuum and the line emission from the broad emission line region (BELR) of radio-quiet quasars, but in the opposite sense to that predicted by current photoionization models; and (5) the correlations of X-ray slope with radio core dominance and FeII equivalent width within the radio-loud and radio-quiet sub-classes respectively imply that the observed wide range of X-ray spectral slopes is real rather than due to the large measuring uncertainties for individual objects.

Shastri, P.↗

Long slit spectroscopy of NH2 in comets Halley, Wilson, and Nishikawa-Takamizawa-Tago

Long-slit spectra of comets Halley, Wilson and Nishikawa-Takamizawa-Tago were obtained with the 3.9 meter Anglo-Australian Telescope. Spectra of comets Halley and Wilson were obtained with the IPCS at a spectral resolution of 0.5 A and a spatial resolution of 10(exp 3) km. Spectra of comets Wilson and Nishikawa-Takamizawa-Tago were obtained with a CCD at a spectral resolution of 1.5 A and a spatial resolution of approximately 3 x 10(exp 3) km. Surface brightness profiles for NH2 were extracted from the long-slit spectra of each comet. The observed surface brightness profiles extend along the slit to approximately 6 x 10(exp 4) km from the nucleus in both sunward and tailward directions. By comparing surface distribution calculated from an appropriate coma model with observed surface brightness distributions, the photodissociation timescale of the parent molecule of NH2 can be inferred. The observed NH2 surface brightness profiles in all three comets compares well with a surface brightness profile calculated using the vectorial model, an NH3 photodissociation timescale of 7 x 10(exp 3) seconds, and an NH2 photodissociation timescale of 34,000 seconds.

Rettig, Terrence W.↗

The Einstein All-Sky Slew Survey

The First Einstein IPC Slew Survey produced a list of 819 x-ray sources, with f(sub x) approximately 10(exp -12) - 10(exp -10) erg/sq cm s and positional accuracy of approximately 1.2 feet (90 percent radius). The aim of this program was to identify these x-ray sources.

Elvis, Martin S.↗

Thirteen new BL Lacertae objects discovered by an efficient x ray/radio/optical technique

The discovery of 13 serendipitous BL Lac objects in the Einstein IPC Slew Survey by means of x ray/radio vs. x ray/optical color-color diagrams and confirmation by optical spectroscopy are reported. These 13 BL Lacs were discovered using a technique which exploits the characteristic broad band spectra of BL Lacs. New VLA detections provide accurate fluxes (f(6 cm) is approximately 0.5 mJy) and 2 in. positions, facilitating the determination of an optical counterpart. All 13 new BL Lacs show essentially featureless optical spectra. Nine of these lie within the range of colors of known x ray selected BL Lacs. Of the remaining four, one is apparently x ray louder (by a factor of 1.5) or optically quieter (by 0.8 mags); and three are optically louder (by 1-1.3 mags) than x ray selected BL Lacs. Approximately 50 new BL Lacs in total are expected from VLA work and upcoming Australia Telescope observations, yielding a complete Slew Survey sample of approximately 90 BL Lacs.

Schachter, Jonathan F.↗

A study of the x ray environment of radio galaxies

We are currently working on a program to use extensive x-ray and radio databases to investigate the relationship between extended radio emission and environment in clusters of galaxies. The radio galaxy morphology is determined using VLA imaging and the x-ray properties are determined from Einstein IPC images. This study is motivated by the hypothesis that the key to understanding radio galaxies lies in the local environment. To test this hypothesis we have studied the detailed relationship between galaxy radio emission and the x-ray morphology of their parent clusters. In this pilot study we have used 35 radio sources found in 27 clusters. We have determined the position angle of the x-ray and radio emission, and x-ray and radio luminosities. The x-ray position was taken to be the position of peak flux of the subclump containing the radio galaxy. The radio position was taken to be the position of the galaxy. We do not find a correlation between the x-ray and radio source position angle. This remains true when the sample is divided into subsamples according to radio morphology (wide angle tail, twin jet, narrow angle tail galaxies). We find a weak correlation between the radio source luminosity and the x-ray luminosity. We have computed the distance from the radio galaxy position to the center of the x-ray clump. We find a mean distance from the x-ray clump center of 0.16 Mpc for the radio galaxies in this sample. The mean distance to the nearest clump of x-ray emission is typically half the distance to the optical cluster center. We thus find strong evidence that radio galaxies are located very close to clumps of x-ray emission. These subclumps are not always affiliated with the central cluster x-ray emission. This supports our hypothesis that x-ray emission may provide a key to understanding radio galaxy morphology. We find evidence that radio galaxies occur in clusters that contain prominent substructures. Radio galaxies may thus provide an added diagnostic of the cluster dynamical state.

Rhee, George F.↗