arXiv subjects

X. Barcons

Publications and source records attributed to X. Barcons.

89 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv1998

Do nuclear starbursts obscure the X-ray background?

We propose a model for the source of the X-ray background (XRB) in which low luminosity active nuclei (L<10^43 erg/s) are obscured by nuclear starbursts within the inner 100pc. The obscuring material covers most of the sky as seen from the central source, rather than being distributed in a toroidal structure, and hardens the averaged X-ray spectrum by photoelectric absorption. The gas is turbulent with velocity dispersion of a few 100 km/s and cloud-cloud collisions lead to copious star formation. Although supernovae tend to produce outflows, most of the gas is trapped in the gravity field of the starforming cluster itself and the central black hole. A hot (T=10^6-10^7 K) virialised phase of this gas, comprising a few per cent of the total obscuring material, feeds the central engine of 10^7 solar masses through Bondi accretion, at a sub-Eddington rate appropriate for the luminosity of these objects. If starburst-obscured objects give rise to the residual XRB, then only 10 per cent of the accretion in active galaxies occurs close to the Eddington limit in unabsorbed objects.

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arXiv1997

The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of \lya Absorption Systems. III. Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of \lya-Absorbing Galaxies at z < 1

We present initial results of a program to obtain and analyze HST WFPC2 images of galaxies identified in an imaging and spectroscopic survey of faint galaxies in fields of HST spectroscopic target QSOs. We measure properties of 87 galaxies, of which 33 are associated with corresponding \lya absorption systems and 24 do not produce corresponding \lya absorption lines to within sensitive upper limits. Considering only galaxy and absorber pairs that are likely to be physically associated and excluding galaxy and absorber pairs within 3000 \kms of the background QSOs leaves 26 galaxy and absorber pairs and seven galaxies that do not produce corresponding \lya absorption lines to within sensitive upper limits. Redshifts of the galaxy and absorber pairs range from 0.0750 to 0.8912 with a median of 0.3718, and impact parameter separations of the galaxy and absorber pairs range from 12.4 to $157.4 h^{-1}$ kpc with a median of $62.4 h^{-1}$ kpc. The primary result of the analysis is that the amount of gas encountered along the line of sight depends on the galaxy impact parameter and B-band luminosity but does not depend strongly on the galaxy average surface brightness, disk-to-bulge ratio, or redshift. This result confirms and improves upon the anti-correlation between \lya absorption equivalent width and galaxy impact parameter found previously by Lanzetta et al. (1995). There is no evidence that galaxy interactions play an important role in distributing tenuous gas around galaxies in most cases. Galaxies might account for all \lya absorption systems with $W > 0.3$ Å, but this depends on the unknown luminosity function and gaseous cross sections of low-luminosity galaxies as well as on the uncertainties of the observed number density of \lya absorption systems.

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arXiv1997

A new X-ray mission to measure the power spectrum of fluctuations in the Universe

We propose a new, simple, dedicated X-ray mission to measure the power spectrum of density fluctuations in the Universe, by accurately mapping the X-ray background on the whole sky on scales of arounf one sq deg. Since the method relies on the detection of excess fluctuations produced by the clustering of X-ray sources at intermediate redshifts above the confusion noise produced by bright foreground sources, counting noise and systematic noise need to be kept to a minimum. We propose a proportional counter with collimated fields of view of various sizes as the optimal instrument for this mission.

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arXiv1997

Deep hard X-ray source counts from a fluctuation analysis of ASCA SIS images

An analysis of the spatial fluctuations in 15 deep ASCA SIS0 images has been conducted in order to probe the 2-10 keV X-ray source counts down to a flux limit 2E-14 erg/cm2/s. Special care has been taken in modelling the fluctuations in terms of the sensitivity maps of every one of the 16 regions (5.6 x 5.6 arcmin2 each) in which the SIS0 has been divided, by means of raytracing simulations with improved optical constants in the X-ray telescope. The very extended `side lobes' (extending up to a couple of degrees) exhibited by these sensitivity maps make our analysis sensitive to both faint on-axis sources and brighter off-axis ones, the former being dominant. The source counts in the range (2-12)E-14 erg/cm2/s are found to be close to a euclidean form which extrapolates well to previous results from higher fluxes and in reasonable agreement with some recent ASCA surveys. However, our results disagree with the deep survey counts by Georgantopoulos et al. (1997). The possibility that the source counts flatten to a subeuclidean form, as is observed at soft energies in ROSAT data, is only weakly constrained to happen at a flux <1.8E-12 erg/cm2/s (90 per cent confidence). Down to the sensitivity limit of our analysis, the integrated contribution of the sources whose imprint is seen in the fluctuations amounts to 35\pm 13 per cent of the extragalactic 2-10 keV X-ray background.

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arXiv1997

Measuring the power spectrum of density fluctuations at intermediate redshift with X-ray background observations

The precision of intensity measurements of the extragalactic X-ray Background (XRB) on an angular scale of about a degree is dominated by spatial fluctuations caused by source confusion noise. X-ray source counts at the flux level responsible for these fluctuations will soon be accurately measured by new missions and it will then be possible to detect the weaker fluctuations caused by the clustering of the fainter, more distant sources which produce the bulk of the XRB. We show here that measurements of these excess fluctuations at the level of 0.2 per cent are within reach, improving by an order of magnitude on present upper limits. Together with the redshift evolution of the X-ray volume emissivity in the Universe, this can be used to measure the power spectrum of the density fluctuations at comoving wavevectors 0.01-0.1 h/Mpc at z=1-2 with a sensitivity better than the predictions from large-scale structure models. A relatively simple X-ray experiment, carried out by a large-area proportional counter with a 0.5-2 deg^2 collimated field-of-view scanning the whole sky a few times, would be able to determine the power spectrum of the density fluctuations near its expected peak in wavevector with an accuracy better than 10 per cent.

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arXiv1997

The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of \lya Absorption Systems at z < 1

We present initial results of a program to obtain and analyze HST WFPC2 images of galaxies in fields of HST spectroscopic target QSOs. The goal of the program is to investigate how the properties of \lya absorption systems observed in the spectra of background QSOs vary with the properties of intervening galaxies. We found that \lya absorption equivalent width depends strongly on galaxy impact parameter and galaxy B-band luminosity, and that the gaseous extent of individual galaxies scales with galaxy B-band luminosity by $r\propto L_B^{0.35\pm0.10}$.

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arXiv1997

Lyman-alpha absorbers arising in galaxy clusters

We present here new GHRS observations of Lyman-alpha absorption lines associated with groups or clusters toward the QSOs 1545+2101 and 0850+4400. In the first case we have identified at least eight distinct Lyman-alpha absorption features, with a mean redshift of = 0.2648 \pm 0.0002 and a velocity dispersion of 163 \pm 57 km/s. We have also identified a group or cluster of galaxies in the vicinity of this QSO with a mean redshift of = 0.2643 \pm 0.0004 and velocity dispersion 223 \pm 91 km/s . The spectrum of QSO 0850+4400, of poorer quality, reveals two Lyman-alpha absorption features at z=0.0909500 \pm 0.0000070 (which is just resolved) and z=0.0948215 \pm 0.0000090, separated by $\sim 1060 km/s. A group or cluster of galaxies is also present in the vicinity of the QSO line-of-sight with a mean redshift =0.0901 \pm 0.0007 and velocity dispersion of 530 \pm 200 km/s. The results of this work establish that Lyman-alpha absorption can occur in denser than average galaxy environments, and that it arises in discrete objects spanning a velocity range similar to that of the cluster galaxies. Although a one-to-one relationship between absorbers and galaxies is difficult to establish in such a dense environment, the results obtained here are indeed consistent with the Lyman-alpha absorption lines being associated with individual galaxies also in groups and clusters. Moreover, the data shows clearly that line clustering takes place in the Lyman-alpha forest.

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arXiv1997

Fluctuations in the diffuse X-ray background observed with Ginga

We present Ginga measurements of the spatial fluctuations in the diffuse X-ray background. When combined with earlier results, the new data constrain the extragalactic log N - log S relation in the 2-10 keV energy band to a form close to the Euclidean prediction over the flux range 1E-10 - 5E-13 erg/cm2/s. The normalisation of the 2-10 keV source counts is a factor 2-3 above that derived in the softer 0.3-3.5 keV band from the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey if a spectral conversion is assumed which ignores X-ray absorption intrinsic to the sources. Both this result and the spectral characteristics of the spatial fluctuations are consistent with relatively low-luminosity active galaxies (i.e. L_X < 1E44 erg/s) dominating the 2-10 keV source counts at intermediate flux levels. We also use the `excess variance' of the fluctuations to constrain possible clustering of the underlying discrete sources.

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arXiv1996

Soft X-ray background fluctuations and large-scale structure in the Universe

We have studied the fluctuations of the soft (0.9-2 keV) X-ray background intensity for ~10 arcmin and ~2 arcmin beam sizes, using 80 high galactic latitude medium-deep images from the ROSAT position sensitive proportional counter (PSPC). These fluctuations are dominated (and well reproduced) by confusion noise produced by sources unresolved with the beam sizes we used. We find no evidence for any excess fluctuations which could be attributed to source clustering. The 95 per cent confidence upper limits on excess fluctuations dIclus are: dIclus/Ixrb_10 arcmin<~ 0.12, dIclus/Ixrb_2 arcmin <~0.07. We have checked the possibility that low surface brightness extended objects (like groups or clusters of galaxies) may have a significant contribution to excess fluctuations, finding that they are not necessary to fit the distribution of fluctuations, and obtaining an upper limit on the surface density for this type of source. Standard Cold Dark Matter models would produce dIclus/Ixrb larger than the above limits for any value of the density of the Universe Omega=0.1-1, unless the bias parameter of the X-ray emitting matter is smaller than unity, or an important fraction of the sources of the soft X-ray background (~30 per cent) is at redshifts z>1. Limits on the 2-10 keV excess fluctuations are also considered, showing that X-ray sources in that band have to be at redshifts z>1 unless Omega>0.4. Finally, if the spatial correlation function of the sources that produce these excess fluctuations is instead a power law, the density contrast drho/rho implied by the excess fluctuations reveals that the Universe is smooth and linear on scales of tens of Mpc, while it can be highly non-linear on scales ~1 Mpc.

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arXiv1996

The Luminosity Function Evolution of Soft X--ray selected AGN in the RIXOS survey

A sample of 198 soft X--ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the ROSAT International X--ray Optical Survey (RIXOS), is used to investigate the X--ray luminosity function and its evolution. RIXOS, with a flux limit of 3E-14 erg s-1 cm-2 (0.5 to 2.0 keV), samples a broad range in redshift over 20 deg^2 of sky, and is almost completely identified; it is used in combination with the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS), to give a total sample of over 600 AGN. We find the evolution of AGN with redshift to be consistent with pure luminosity evolution (PLE) models in which the rate of evolution slows markedly or stops at high redshifts z>1.8. We find that this result is not affected by the inclusion, or exclusion, of narrow emission line galaxies at low redshift in the RIXOS and EMSS samples, and is insensitive to uncertainties in the conversion between flux values measured with ROSAT and Einstein. We confirm, using a model independent Ve/Va test, that our survey is consistent with no evolution at high redshifts.

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arXiv1996

Strong Clustering of High-Redshift Lyman-alpha Forest Absorption Systems

We use new observations of very weak CIV absorption lines associated with high-redshift Lyman-alpha absorption systems to measure the high-redshift Lyman-alpha line two-point correlation function (TPCF). These very weak CIV absorption lines trace small-scale velocity structure that cannot be resolved by Lyman-alpha absorption lines. We find that (1) high-redshift Lyman-alpha absorption systems with N(HI) > 3.10^14 cm^{-2} are strongly clustered in redshift, (2) previous measurements of the Lyman-alpha line TPCF underestimated the actual clustering of the absorbers due to unresolved blending of overlapping velocity components, (3) the present observations are consistent with the hypothesis that clustering of Lyman-alpha absorption systems extends to lower column densities, but maybe with smaller amplitude in the correlation function, and (4) the observed clustering is broadly compatible with that expected for galaxies at z \sim 2-3. We interpret these results as suggesting that many or most Lyman-alpha absorbers may arise in galaxies even at high redshifts, and, therefore, that the Lyman-alpha forest probes processes of galaxy formation and evolution for redshifts \lesssim 5.

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arXiv1995

The proximity effect on the Lyman alpha forest due to a a foreground QSO

The influence of a foreground QSO on the lyman a forest of another QSO with higher redshift has been investigated by analyzing the spectra of three such objects at redshifts $z=2 - 2.7$. This influence is not contaminated by any projection effects, as opposed to the inverse effect along the line of sight, where incomplete coverage of the QSO continuum emitting region by the lyman a clouds could contribute to the relative lack of lines. Our results are consistent with the existence of a proximity effect due to the foreground QSO, but due to its weakness we can only reject the absence of such effect at 1 sigma level. By modelling this proximity effect assuming that lyman a clouds are low-density highly ionized objects we find that the best value for the UV photoinizing intensity at those redshifts is 10^{-20.5}(...) at the Lyman limit which is consistent with previous estimates of the background based on the inverse effect. We also find an absolute lower limit (at 95% confidence) to the UV intensity at the level of 10^{-21.8}(...) which means the rejection of a number of models for the UV background.

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arXiv1995

The absorption spectra of Q1107+487 and Q1442+295

We present the first moderate resolution (approx. 40--120 km/s) spectroscopic observations of the bright (V<16.7) high-redshift QSOs Q1107+487 (z_{em} = 2.965) and Q1442+295 (z_{em} = 2.669) (Sanduleak & Pesch 1989). The relatively high signal to noise reached in the spectra along with an extensive wavelength coverage of the Lyman alpha and the Lyman beta forest allowed us to obtain, through profile fitting, column densities and Doppler parameters of the Lyman clouds towards these QSOs. The spectral coverage of regions longward of the Lyman alpha emission line of the QSOs at the expected wavelengths of CIV 1548,1550 at the redshifts of the Lyman alpha forest allowed us to identify some heavy element absorption systems (hereafter HEASs) towards these QSOs. We have found no Lyman absorption system or HEAS towards these QSOs for which our data allow a deuterium measurement or to provide an interesting upper limit for the D/H ratio. The reason for this is that the Lyman lines with high column density detected towards these QSOs belong to absorption systems showing velocity structure.

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arXiv1995

The proximity Effect on the Lyman alpha Forest due to a Foreground QSO

We present the results of our study on three close pairs of QSOs. Our results are consistent with the existence of a proximity effect due to the foreground QSO, but due to its weakness we can only reject the absence of such effect at approx. 1 sigma level. By modelling this proximity effect in terms of a simple photoionisation model, we find the best value for the UV ionizing background to be approx. 10**(-20.5) erg cm**(-2) s**(-1) Hz**(-1) srad**(-1) at the Lyman limit, and an absolute lower limit (95\% confidence) of 10**(-21.8) in the same units. This lower limit rejects a number of models for the UV background where it is mostly contributed by QSOs and absorption by Lyman limit systems is taken into account.

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arXiv1995

Hard X-ray emission from extragalactic IRAS 12um sources: constraints on the unified AGN model and the synthesis of the X-ray background

We analyze the $2-10$~keV X-ray emission of complete samples of AGN and galaxies selected at 12$μ$m and recently compiled by Rush, Malkan \& Spinoglio (1993). As a necessary complement we also study the IR emissivity of the largest sample of hard X--ray selected AGN (Grossan 1992). Our purposes are to probe the unified scheme of active nuclei and to evaluate the local X--ray volume emissivity of low luminosity and `hidden' AGN. We confirm that X-ray emission is basically restricted to AGN, Seyfert 1's being much more powerful emitters than Seyfert 2's. We find no signal of X-ray emission for the remaining galaxies selected at $12μ$m, not even for those having a flat far-infrared spectrum, which would be prime candidates to host hidden AGN. Our result on the local volume emissivity of the Seyfert 1's is fully consistent with those derived from studies of the hard X--ray luminosity function. However the 95$\%$ upper limits to the local emissivity we derive for the Seyfert 2 class and for the most likely `hidden' AGN candidates, severely constrain (and in some cases exclude) models of the X--ray background based on the unified Seyfert scheme. We also find that less than $\sim20$\% of Seyfert 1-like AGN and less than $\sim 50$\% of Seyfert 2-like AGN can be `hidden' in the non-Seyfert galaxy samples assuming that the X-ray to 12$μ$m flux ratios measured in the 12$μ$m selected samples can be considered typical for these classes of objects. In this case, the number ratio of Seyfert 2 to Seyfert 1 galaxies ranges from 1 to 2.

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arXiv1994

Nearby Galaxies and the Ginga X-ray Background

We present here the results of cross-correlating the X-ray background measured by Ginga in the 2-10 keV band with several catalogues of extragalactic objects. Positive signals with an amplitude of a few per cent have been found for some catalogues implying that some fraction of the X-ray background is produced either by the class of catalogued sources or by other classes spatially related to them. Detailed X-ray background simulations have been used to assess the significance of the results and, for the first time, the full angular shape of the cross-correlation. The inferred X-ray volume emissivity in the local Universe, j_0, has been estimated for two galaxy catalogues (UGC and IRAS) for which the cross-correlation is highly significant. We obtain j_0= (0.74 +/- 0.07) for UGC and j_0= (1.15 +/- 0.10) for IRAS, in units of 1.E39 h erg/s/Mpc3. Extrapolating this result back to z~1-4 leads to the conclusion that <~10-30 per cent of the X-ray background could be produced by a non-evolving population of galaxies. These values are shown to be consistent with upper limits on the Auto Correlation Function derived here.

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arXiv1994

On the Influence of X-Ray Galaxy Clusters in the Fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background

The negative evolution found in X--ray clusters of galaxies limits the amount of available hot gas for the inverse Compton scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background (the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich effect). Using a parametrisation of the X-ray luminosity function and its evolution in terms of a coalescence model (as presented in the analysis of a flux limited X-ray cluster sample by Edge et al. 1990), as well as a simple virialised structure for the clusters (which requires a gas to total mass fraction $\approxgt 0.1$ in order to reproduce observed properties of nearby clusters) we show that the Compton distortion $y$ parameter is about two orders of magnitude below the current FIRAS upper limits. Concerning the anisotropies imprinted on arcmin scales they are dominated by the hottest undetected objects. We show that they are negligible (${ΔT\over T}\approxlt 10^{-7}$) at wavelengths $λ\approxgt 1$~mm. At shorter wavelengths they become more important (${ΔT\over T}\sim 10^{-6}$ at $λ\sim 0.3$~mm), but in fact most clusters will produce an isolated and detectable feature in sky maps. After removal of these signals, the fluctuations imprinted by the remaining clusters on the residual radiation are still much smaller. The conclusion is that X-ray clusters can be ignored as sources of Cosmic Microwave Background fluctuations.

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