X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources

Details X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources

2006-05-24

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605629v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted for publication in A&A. Higher quality version of the figures anf whole set of images 3 and 5 to appear in the electr

Scientific paper

10.1051/0004-6361:20054756

We report the results from an homogeneous analysis of the X-ray (Chandra-ACIS) data available for a sample of 51 LINER galaxies selected from the catalogue by Carrillo et al. (1999) and representative of the population of bright LINER sources. The nuclear X-ray morphology has been classified attending to their nuclear compactness in the hard band (4.5-8.0 keV) into 2 categories: Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) candidates (with a clearly identified unresolved nuclear source) and Starburst (SB) candidates (without a clear nuclear source). 60% of the total sample are classified as AGNs, with a median luminosity of LX(2-10 keV)=2.5 x 10^(40)erg/s, which is an order of magnitude higher than that for SB-like nuclei. The spectral fitting allows to conclude that most of the objects need a non-negligible power-law contribution. When no spectral fitting can be performed (data with low signal-to-noise ratio), the Color-Color diagrams allow us to roughly estimate physical parameters such as column density, temperature of the thermal model or spectral index for a power-law and therefore to better constrain the origin of the X-ray emission. All together the X-ray morphology, the spectra and the Color-Color diagrams allow us to conclude that a high percentage of LINER galaxies, at least ~60%, could host AGN nuclei, although contributions from High Mass X-ray Binaries or Ultra-luminous X-ray sources cannot be ruled out for some galaxies.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and X-ray nature of the LINER nuclear sources will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-72368