Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-11-07
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 348 (2004) 406
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
16 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07375.x
We present results from Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of NGC 4214, a nearby dwarf starburst galaxy containing several young regions of very active star-formation. Starburst regions are known to be associated with diffuse X-ray emission, and in this case the X-ray emission from the galaxy shows an interesting morphological structure within the galaxy, clearly associated with the central regions of active star-formation. Of the two main regions of star-formation in this galaxy, X-ray emission associated with the older is identified whereas little is detected from the younger, providing an insight into the evolutionary process of the formation of superbubbles around young stellar clusters. The spectra of the diffuse emission from the galaxy can be fitted with a two temperature component thermal model with kT=0.14keV and 0.52keV, and analysis of this emission suggests that NGC 4214 will suffer a blow-out in the future. The point source population of the galaxy has an X-ray luminosity function with a slope of -0.76. This result, together with those for other dwarf starburst galaxies (NGC 4449 and NGC 5253), was added to a sample of luminosity functions for spiral and starburst galaxies. The slope of the luminosity function of dwarf starbursts is seen to be similar to that of their larger counterparts and clearly flatter than those seen in spirals. Further comparisons between the luminosity functions of starbursts and spiral galaxies are also made.
Hartwell Joanna M.
Heckman Timothy M.
Stevens Ian R.
Strickland David K.
Summers Lesley K.
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