2,456 research outputs found
An XMM-Newton Survey of the Soft X-ray Background. II. An All-Sky Catalog of Diffuse O VII and O VIII Emission Intensities
We present an all-sky catalog of diffuse O VII and O VIII line intensities,
extracted from archival XMM observations. The O VII and O VIII intensities are
typically ~2-11 and <~3 ph/cm^2/s/sr (LU), respectively, although much brighter
intensities were also recorded. Our data set includes 217 directions observed
multiple times by XMM. The time variation of the intensities from such
directions may be used to constrain SWCX models. The O VII and O VIII
intensities typically vary by <~5 and <~2 LU between repeat observations,
although several intensity enhancements of >10 LU were observed. We compared
our measurements with SWCX models. The heliospheric SWCX intensity is expected
to vary with ecliptic latitude and solar cycle. We found that the observed
oxygen intensities generally decrease from solar maximum to solar minimum, both
at high ecliptic latitudes (as expected) and at low ecliptic latitudes (not as
expected). The geocoronal SWCX intensity is expected to depend on the solar
wind proton flux and on the sightline's path through the magnetosheath. The
intensity variations seen in directions that have been observed multiple times
are in poor agreement with the predictions of a geocoronal SWCX model. The
oxygen lines account for ~40-50% of the 3/4 keV X-ray background that is not
due to unresolved AGN, in good agreement with a previous measurement. However,
this fraction is not easily explained by a combination of SWCX emission and
emission from hot plasma in the halo. The line intensities tend to increase
with longitude toward the inner Galaxy, possibly due to an increase in the
supernova rate in that direction or the presence of a halo of accreted material
centered on the Galactic Center. The variation of intensity with Galactic
latitude differs in different octants of the sky, and cannot be explained by a
single simple plane-parallel or constant-intensity halo model. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Series. 29 pages (main body of paper) plus 85 pages (full versions of Tables
1, 2, and 4 - these tables will be published as machine-readable tables in
the journal, and appear in abbreviated form in the main body of the paper).
12 figures. v2: Minor corrections, conclusions unaltere
Groups and the Entropy Floor- XMM-Newton Observations of Two Groups
Using XMM-Newton spatially resolved X-ray imaging spectroscopy we obtain the
temperature, density, entropy, gas mass, and total mass profiles for two groups
of galaxies out to ~0.3 Rvir (Rvir, the virial radius). Our density profiles
agree well with those derived previously, and the temperature data are broadly
consistent with previous results but are considerably more precise. Both of
these groups are at the mass scale of 2x10^13 Msolar but have rather different
properties. They have considerably lower gas mass fractions at r<0.3 Rvir than
the rich clusters. NGC2563, one of the least luminous groups for its X-ray
temperature, has a very low gas mass fraction of ~0.004 inside 0.1 Rvir, which
rises with radius. NGC4325, one of the most luminous groups at the same average
temperature, has a higher gas mass fraction of 0.02. The entropy profiles and
the absolute values of the entropy as a function of virial radius also differ,
with NGC4325 having a value of ~100 keV cm-2 and NGC2563 a value of ~300 keV
cm-2 at r~0.1 Rvir. For both groups the profiles rise monotonically with radius
and there is no sign of an entropy "floor". These results are inconsistent with
pre-heating scenarios which have been developed to explain the entropy floor in
groups but are broadly consistent with models of structure formation which
include the effects of heating and/or the cooling of the gas. The total entropy
in these systems provides a strong constraint on all models of galaxy and group
formation, and on the poorly defined feedback process which controls the
transformation of gas into stars and thus the formation of structure in the
universe.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure
Thirty-three Years of Synthetic Organic Chemistry in Geneva: Reminiscences
After thirty-three years of synthetic organic chemistry research in Geneva, three years as a postdoc at the Université de Genève and over thirty years working at Firmenich, a world-renowned flavour and fragrance company, Dr. Roger L. Snowden, Vice President Synthesis,
Corporate R&D Division, Firmenich retraces his career back to 1975 when he arrived in Switzerland. A brief autobiographical sketch of this British national is presented, together with the reasons why Geneva turned out to be where he was to effect the major part of his scientific career
Global Hot Gas in and around the Galaxy
The hot interstellar medium traces the stellar feedback and its role in
regulating the eco-system of the Galaxy. I review recent progress in
understanding the medium, based largely on X-ray absorption line spectroscopy,
complemented by X-ray emission and far-UV OVI absorption measurements. These
observations enable us for the first time to characterize the global spatial,
thermal, chemical, and kinematic properties of the medium. The results are
generally consistent with what have been inferred from X-ray imaging of nearby
galaxies similar to the Galaxy. It is clear that diffuse soft X-ray
emitting/absorbing gas with a characteristic temperature of K
resides primarily in and around the Galactic disk and bulge. In the solar
neighborhood, for example, this gas has a characteristic vertical scale height
of kpc. This conclusion does not exclude the presence of a
larger-scale, probably much hotter, and lower density circum-Galactic hot
medium, which is required to explain observations of various high-velocity
clouds. This hot medium may be a natural product of the stellar feedback in the
context of the galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 11 pages, invited talk in the workshop "The Local Bubble and Beyond
II
A Catalog of Galaxy Clusters Observed by XMM-Newton
Aims: We present a uniform catalog of the images and radial profiles of the
temperature, abundance, and brightness for 70 clusters of galaxies observed by
XMM-Newton.
Methods: We use a new "first principles" approach to the modeling and removal
of the background components; the quiescent particle background, the cosmic
diffuse emission, the soft proton contamination, and the solar wind charge
exchange emission. Each of the background components demonstrate significant
spectral variability, several have spatial distributions that are not described
by the photon vignetting function, and all except for the cosmic diffuse
emission are temporally variable. Because these backgrounds strongly affect the
analysis of low surface brightness objects, we provide a detailed description
our methods of identification, characterization, and removal.
Results: We have applied these methods to a large collection of XMM-Newton
observations of clusters of galaxies and present the resulting catalog. We find
significant systematic differences between the Chandra and XMM-Newton
temperatures.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 55 pages with 42 figure
Local ISM 3D Distribution and Soft X-ray Background Inferences for Nearby Hot Gas
Three-dimensional (3D) interstellar medium (ISM) maps can be used to locate not only interstellar (IS) clouds, but also IS bubbles between the clouds that are blown by stellar winds and supernovae, and are filled by hot gas. To demonstrate this, and to derive a clearer picture of the local ISM, we compare our recent 3D IS dust distribution maps to the ROSAT diffuse Xray background maps after removal of heliospheric emission. In the Galactic plane, there is a good correspondence between the locations and extents of the mapped nearby cavities and the soft (0.25 keV) background emission distribution, showing that most of these nearby cavities contribute to this soft X-ray emission. Assuming a constant dust to gas ratio and homogeneous 106 K hot gas filling the cavities, we modeled in a simple way the 0.25 keV surface brightness along the Galactic plane as seen from the Sun, taking into account the absorption by the mapped clouds. The data-model comparison favors the existence of hot gas in the solar neighborhood, the so-called Local Bubble (LB). The inferred mean pressure in the local cavities is found to be approx.9,400/cu cm K, in agreement with previous studies, providing a validation test for the method. On the other hand, the model overestimates the emission from the huge cavities located in the third quadrant. Using CaII absorption data, we show that the dust to CaII ratio is very small in those regions, implying the presence of a large quantity of lower temperature (non-X-ray emitting) ionized gas and as a consequence a reduction of the volume filled by hot gas, explaining at least part of the discrepancy. In the meridian plane, the two main brightness enhancements coincide well with the LB's most elongated parts and chimneys connecting the LB to the halo, but no particular nearby cavity is found towards the enhancement in the direction of the bright North Polar Spur (NPS) at high latitude. We searched in the 3D maps for the source regions of the higher energy (0.75 keV) enhancements in the fourth and first quadrants. Tunnels and cavities are found to coincide with the main bright areas, however no tunnel nor cavity is found to match the low-latitude b > or approx. 8deg, brightest part of the NPS. In addition, the comparison between the 3D maps and published spectral data favors a NPS central source region location beyond 230 pc, i.e. at larger distance than usually considered. Those examples illustrate the potential use of more detailed 3D distributions of the nearby ISM for the interpretation of the diffuse soft X-ray background
The Origin of the Hot Gas in the Galactic Halo: Confronting Models with XMM-Newton Observations
We compare the predictions of three physical models for the origin of the hot
halo gas with the observed halo X-ray emission, derived from 26 high-latitude
XMM-Newton observations of the soft X-ray background between l=120\degr and
l=240\degr. These observations were chosen from a much larger set of
observations as they are expected to be the least contaminated by solar wind
charge exchange emission. We characterize the halo emission in the XMM-Newton
band with a single-temperature plasma model. We find that the observed halo
temperature is fairly constant across the sky (~1.8e6-2.3e6 K), whereas the
halo emission measure varies by an order of magnitude (~0.0005-0.006 cm^-6 pc).
When we compare our observations with the model predictions, we find that most
of the hot gas observed with XMM-Newton does not reside in isolated extraplanar
supernova remnants -- this model predicts emission an order of magnitude too
faint. A model of a supernova-driven interstellar medium, including the flow of
hot gas from the disk into the halo in a galactic fountain, gives good
agreement with the observed 0.4-2.0 keV surface brightness. This model
overpredicts the halo X-ray temperature by a factor of ~2, but there are a
several possible explanations for this discrepancy. We therefore conclude that
a major (possibly dominant) contributor to the halo X-ray emission observed
with XMM-Newton is a fountain of hot gas driven into the halo by disk
supernovae. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that the extended hot
halo of accreted material predicted by disk galaxy formation models also
contributes to the emission.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. New version accepted for publication in ApJ.
Changes include new section discussing systematic errors (Section 3.2),
improved method for characterizing our model spectra (4.2.2), changes to
discussion of other observations (5.1). Note that we can no longer rule out
possibility that extended hot halo of accreted material contributes to
observed halo emission (see 5.2.1
- …