Doppler Shifts and Broadening and the Structure of the X-ray Emission from Algol

In a study of Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating spectra of Algol, we clearly detect Doppler shifts caused by the orbital motion of Algol B. These data provide the first definitive proof that the X-ray emission of Algol is dominated by the secondary, in concordance with expectations that Algol A (B8) is X-ray dark. The measured Doppler shifts are slightly smaller than expected, implying an effective orbital radius of about 10 Rsolar, instead of 11.5 Rsolar for the Algol B center of mass. This could be caused by a small contribution of X-ray flux from Algol A (10-15%), possibly through accretion. The more likely explanation is an asymmetric corona biased toward the system center of mass by the tidal distortion of the surface of Algol B. Analysis of the strongest lines indicates excess line broadening of ~150 km/s above that expected from thermal motion and surface rotation. Possible explanations include turbulence, flows or explosive events, or rotational broadening from a radially extended corona. We favor the latter scenario and infer that a significant component of the corona at temperatures <10^7 K has a scale height of order the stellar radius. This is supported by the shape of the X-ray lightcurve and the shallow dip at secondary eclipse. We also examine the O VII intercombination and forbidden lines in a Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrograph observation and find no change in their relative line fluxes as the system goes from quadrature to primary eclipse. Since these lines are strongly affected by UV irradiation from Algol A, this supports the conjecture that the corona of Algol B at temperatures of several million K must be significantly extended and/or located toward the poles to avoid being shadowed from Algol A during primary eclipse.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figure

Chandra Multiwavelength Project. II. First Results of X‐Ray Source Properties

The Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP) is a wide-area (~14 deg2) survey of serendipitous Chandra X-ray sources, aiming to establish fair statistical samples covering a wide range of characteristics (such as absorbed active galactic nuclei [AGNs] and high-z clusters of galaxies) at flux levels (fX ~ 10-15 to 10-14 ergs s-1 cm-2) intermediate between the Chandra Deep Field surveys and previous missions. We present the first results of X-ray source properties obtained from the initial sample of 62 observations. The data have been uniformly reduced and analyzed with techniques specifically developed for the ChaMP and then validated by visual examination. Utilizing only near-on-axis X-ray-bright sources (to avoid problems caused by incompleteness and the Eddington bias), we derive the log N- log S relation in soft (0.5-2 keV) and hard (2-8 keV) energy bands. The ChaMP data are consistent with previous results of ROSAT, ASCA, and Chandra Deep Field surveys. In particular, our data nicely fill in the flux gap in the hard band between the Chandra Deep Field data and the previous ASCA data. We check whether there is any systematic difference in the source density between cluster and noncluster fields and also search for field-to-field variation, both of which have been previously reported. We found no significant field-to-field cosmic variation in either test within the statistics (~1 σ) across the flux levels included in our sample. In the X-ray color-color plot, most sources fall in the location characterized by photon index = 1.5-2 and NH = a few × 1020 cm2, suggesting that they are typical broadline AGNs. There also exist a considerable number of sources with peculiar X-ray colors (e.g., highly absorbed, very hard, very soft). We confirm a trend that on average the X-ray color hardens as the count rate decreases. Since the hardening is confined to the softest energy band (0.3-0.9 keV), we conclude that it is most likely due to absorption. We cross-correlate the X-ray sources with other catalogs and describe their properties in terms of optical color, X-ray-to-optical luminosity ratio, and X-ray colors.Astronom

Chandra Multiwavelength Project. I. First X‐Ray Source Catalog

The Chandra Multiwavelength Project (ChaMP) is a wide-area (~14 deg2) survey of serendipitous Chandra X-ray sources, aiming to establish fair statistical samples covering a wide range of characteristics (such as absorbed active galactic nuclei, high-z clusters of galaxies) at flux levels (fX ~ 10-15 to 10-14 ergs s-1 cm-2) intermediate between the Chandra deep surveys and previous missions. We present the first ChaMP catalog, which consists of 991 near on-axis, bright X-ray sources obtained from the initial sample of 62 observations. The data have been uniformly reduced and analyzed with techniques specifically developed for the ChaMP and then validated by visual examination. To assess source reliability and positional uncertainty, we perform a series of simulations and also use Chandra data to complement the simulation study. The false source detection rate is found to be as good as or better than expected for a given limiting threshold. On the other hand, the chance of missing a real source is rather complex, depending on the source counts, off-axis distance (or PSF), and background rate. The positional error (95% confidence level) is usually less than 1'' for a bright source, regardless of its off-axis distance, while it can be as large as 4'' for a weak source (~20 counts) at a large off-axis distance (Doff-axis > 8'). We have also developed new methods to find spatially extended or temporary variable sources, and those sources are listed in the catalog.Astronom