Distant X-ray Galaxies: Insights from the Local Population

A full understanding of the origin of the hard X-ray background requires a complete and accurate census of the distant galaxies that produce it. Unfortunately, distant X-ray galaxies tend to be very faint at all wavelengths, which hinders efforts to perform this census. This chapter discusses the insights that can be obtained through comparison of the distant population to local X-ray galaxies, whose properties are well characterized. Such comparisons will ultimately aid investigations into the cosmic evolution of supermassive black holes and their environments.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, to appear as Chapter 7 in "Supermassive Black Holes in the Distant Universe" (2004), ed. A. J. Barger, Kluwer Academic Publishers, in pres

Authenticating the Presence of a Relativistic Massive Black Hole Binary in OJ 287 Using Its General Relativity Centenary Flare: Improved Orbital Parameters

Results from regular monitoring of relativistic compact binaries like PSR 1913+16 are consistent with the dominant (quadrupole) order emission of gravitational waves (GWs). We show that observations associated with the binary black hole (BBH) central engine of blazar OJ 287 demand the inclusion of gravitational radiation reaction effects beyond the quadrupolar order. It turns out that even the effects of certain hereditary contributions to GW emission are required to predict impact flare timings of OJ 287. We develop an approach that incorporates this effect into the BBH model for OJ 287. This allows us to demonstrate an excellent agreement between the observed impact flare timings and those predicted from ten orbital cycles of the BBH central engine model. The deduced rate of orbital period decay is nine orders of magnitude higher than the observed rate in PSR 1913+16, demonstrating again the relativistic nature of OJ 287's central engine. Finally, we argue that precise timing of the predicted 2019 impact flare should allow a test of the celebrated black hole "no-hair theorem" at the 10% level

THE DEARTH OF CHEMICALLY ENRICHED WARM-HOT CIRCUMGALACTIC GAS

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) around galaxies is believed to record various forms of galaxy feedback and contain a significant portion of the missing baryons of individual dark matter halos. However, clear observational evidence for the existence of the hot CGM is still absent. We use intervening galaxies along 12 background active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as tracers to search for X-ray absorption lines produced in the corresponding CGM. Stacking Chandra grating observations with respect to galaxy groups and different luminosities of these intervening galaxies, we obtain spectra with signal-to-noise ratios of 46-72 per 20 mÅ spectral bin at the expected O VII Kα line. We find no detectable absorption lines of C VI, N VII, O VII, O VIII, or Ne IX. The high spectral quality allows us to tightly constrain upper limits to the corresponding ionic column densities (in particular ). These nondetections are inconsistent with the Local Group hypothesis of the X-ray absorption lines at z 0 commonly observed in the spectra of AGNs. These results indicate that the putative CGM in the temperature range of 105.5-106.3 K may not be able to account for the missing baryons unless the metallicity is less than 10% solar

The Apparent Host Galaxy of PKS 1413+135: Hubble Space Telescope,* ASCA, and Very Long Baseline Array ** Observations

PKS 1413+135 (z = 0.24671) is one of very few radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with an apparent spiral host galaxy. Previous authors have attributed its nearly exponential infrared cutoff to heavy absorption but have been unable to place tight limits on the absorber or its location in the optical galaxy. In addition, doubts remain about the relationship of the AGN to the optical galaxy given the observed lack of reemitted radiation. We present new Hubble Space Telescope (HST), ASCA, and Very Long Baseline Array observations, which throw significant new light on these issues. The HST observations reveal that the active nucleus of PKS 1413+135 has an extremely red color, (V-H) = 6.9 mag, requiring both a spectral turnover at a few microns because of synchrotron aging and an absorbing region the size of a giant molecular cloud. Combining constraints from the HST and ASCA data, we derive an intrinsic column NH = 4.6 × 1022 cm-2 and covering fraction f = 0.12. The spin temperature of the molecular absorption lines found by previous authors suggests that the cloud is located in the disk of the optical galaxy, making our sight line rather unlikely (P ~ 2 × 10-4). The properties of this region appear typical of large giant molecular clouds in our own Galaxy. The H I absorber appears centered 25 mas away from the nucleus, while the X-ray and nearly all of the molecular absorbers must cover the nucleus, implying a rather complicated geometry and cloud structure, in particular requiring a molecular core along our line of sight to the nucleus. Interestingly, the HST/NICMOS data require the AGN to be decentered relative to the optical galaxy by 13 ± 4 mas. This could be interpreted as suggestive of an AGN location far in the background compared with the optical galaxy, but it can also be explained by obscuration and/or nuclear structure, which is more consistent with the observed lack of multiple images

Exploring the Impact of Leadership on Pupil Outcomes: Research design and sampling.

We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) data on the large-scale environments of 16 0.39 < z < 0.51 quasars from the Large Bright Quasar Survey (LBQS). The LBQS quasars are representative of the radio-quiet population, and this is the first look at their large-scale environments. We compare the LBQS environments with the environments of 27 0.15 < z < 0.55 quasars selected from the HST Archive. The majority of the Archive quasars are from the PG and PKS surveys, and these quasars are more luminous on average than the LBQS. By comparing the LBQS and Archive environments, we investigate whether previous quasar environment studies have been biased due to studying unusually radio or optically luminous quasars. We detect a significant excess of galaxies around the Archive quasars but find no such excess around the LBQS quasars. We calculate the amplitude of the spatial correlation function and find that the LBQS environments are consistent with that of the typical galaxy while the Archive environments are slightly less rich than Abell 0 clusters. We find no difference between the environments of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars in either sample. However, comparison with previously published work shows that the LBQS radio-loud quasars are in sparse environments when compared with other radio-loud quasars, and the Archive radio-quiet quasars are in dense environments compared to other radio-quiet quasars. The richer environments of the Archive radio-quiet quasars can not be explained by their higher optical luminosities.We find a positive correlation (95%) between radio luminosity and environment for the radio-loud quasars. This may explain why the LBQS radio-loud quasars, which are less radio luminous, are in sparser environments.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Latex, aastex version 5.0.

Distant cluster hunting. II. A comparison of X-ray and optical cluster detection techniques and catalogs from the ROSAT optical X-ray survey

We present and analyze the optical and X-ray catalogs of moderate-redshift cluster candidates from the ROSAT Optical X-Ray Survey, or ROXS. The survey covers the sky area contained in the fields of view of 23 deep archival ROSAT PSPC pointings, 4.8 square degrees. The cross-correlated cluster catalogs were constructed by comparing two independent catalogs extracted from the optical and X-ray bandpasses, using a matched-filter technique for the optical data and a wavelet technique for the X-ray data. We cross-identified cluster candidates in each catalog. As reported in Paper I, the matched-filter technique found optical counterparts for at least 60% (26 out of 43) of the X-ray cluster candidates; the estimated redshifts from the matched filter algorithm agree with at least 7 of 11 spectroscopic confirmations (Deltaz less than or similar to 0.10). The matched filter technique, with an imaging sensitivity of m(I) similar to 23, identified approximately 3 times the number of candidates (155 candidates, 142 with a detection confidence > 3 sigma) found in the X-ray survey of nearly the same area. There are 57 X-ray candidates, 43 of which are unobscured by scattered light or bright stars in the optical images. Twenty-six of these have fairly secure optical counterparts. We find that the matched filter algorithm, when applied to images with galaxy flux sensitivities of m(I) similar to 23, is fairly well-matched to discovering z less than or equal to 1 clusters detected by wavelets in ROSAT PSPC exposures of 8000 60, 000 s. The difference in the spurious fractions between the optical and X-ray (30% and 10%, respectively) cannot account for the difference in source number. In Paper I, we compared the optical and X-ray cluster luminosity functions and we found that the luminosity functions are consistent if the relationship between X-ray and optical luminosities is steep (L-X proportional to L-opt(3-4)). Here, in Paper II, we present the cluster catalogs and a numerical simulation of the ROXS. We also present color-magnitude plots for several of the cluster candidates, and examine the prominence of the red sequence in each. We find that the X-ray clusters in our survey do not all have a prominent red sequence. We conclude that while the red sequence may be a distinct feature in the color-magnitude plots for virialized massive clusters, it may be less distinct in lower mass clusters of galaxies at even moderate redshifts. Multiple, complementary methods of selecting and de ning clusters may be essential, particularly at high redshift where all methods start to run into completeness limits, incomplete understanding of physical evolution, and projection effects