ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY
We have conducted a statistical analysis of the ultra-luminous X-ray point sources (ULXs; LX ≥ 10[superscript 39] erg s–1) in a sample of galaxies selected from the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. We find a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-4 in the number of ULXs per blue luminosity for the st...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92878 |
| _version_ | 1826214917531762688 |
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| author | Smith, Beverly J. Swartz, Douglas A. Miller, Olivia Burleson, Jacob A. Nowak, Michael A. Struck, Curtis |
| author2 | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research |
| author_facet | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Smith, Beverly J. Swartz, Douglas A. Miller, Olivia Burleson, Jacob A. Nowak, Michael A. Struck, Curtis |
| author_sort | Smith, Beverly J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We have conducted a statistical analysis of the ultra-luminous X-ray point sources (ULXs; LX ≥ 10[superscript 39] erg s–1) in a sample of galaxies selected from the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. We find a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-4 in the number of ULXs per blue luminosity for the strongly interacting subset. Such an enhancement would be expected if ULX production is related to star formation, as interacting galaxies tend to have enhanced star formation rates on average. For most of the Arp galaxies in our sample, the total number of ULXs compared to the far-infrared luminosity is consistent with values found earlier for spiral galaxies. This suggests that for these galaxies, ULXs trace recent star formation. However, for the most infrared-luminous galaxies, we find a deficiency of ULXs compared to the infrared luminosity. For these very infrared-luminous galaxies, active galactic nuclei may contribute to powering the far-infrared; alternatively, ULXs may be highly obscured in the X-ray in these galaxies and therefore not detected by these Chandra observations. We determined local UV/optical colors within the galaxies in the vicinity of the candidate ULXs using Galaxy Evolution Explorer UV and Sloan Digitized Sky Survey optical images. In most cases, the distributions of colors are similar to the global colors of interacting galaxies. However, the u – g and r – i colors at the ULX locations tend to be bluer on average than these global colors, suggesting that ULXs are preferentially found in regions with young stellar populations. In the Arp sample there is a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-5 in the fraction of galactic nuclei that are X-ray-bright compared to more normal spirals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/92878 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:12:19Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/928782022-10-02T07:03:58Z ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY Smith, Beverly J. Swartz, Douglas A. Miller, Olivia Burleson, Jacob A. Nowak, Michael A. Struck, Curtis MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Nowak, Michael A. We have conducted a statistical analysis of the ultra-luminous X-ray point sources (ULXs; LX ≥ 10[superscript 39] erg s–1) in a sample of galaxies selected from the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. We find a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-4 in the number of ULXs per blue luminosity for the strongly interacting subset. Such an enhancement would be expected if ULX production is related to star formation, as interacting galaxies tend to have enhanced star formation rates on average. For most of the Arp galaxies in our sample, the total number of ULXs compared to the far-infrared luminosity is consistent with values found earlier for spiral galaxies. This suggests that for these galaxies, ULXs trace recent star formation. However, for the most infrared-luminous galaxies, we find a deficiency of ULXs compared to the infrared luminosity. For these very infrared-luminous galaxies, active galactic nuclei may contribute to powering the far-infrared; alternatively, ULXs may be highly obscured in the X-ray in these galaxies and therefore not detected by these Chandra observations. We determined local UV/optical colors within the galaxies in the vicinity of the candidate ULXs using Galaxy Evolution Explorer UV and Sloan Digitized Sky Survey optical images. In most cases, the distributions of colors are similar to the global colors of interacting galaxies. However, the u – g and r – i colors at the ULX locations tend to be bluer on average than these global colors, suggesting that ULXs are preferentially found in regions with young stellar populations. In the Arp sample there is a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-5 in the fraction of galactic nuclei that are X-ray-bright compared to more normal spirals. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Chandra grant GO9-0098X) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Chandra grant GO0-11099A) 2015-01-15T16:09:18Z 2015-01-15T16:09:18Z 2012-06 2011-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0004-6256 1538-3881 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92878 Smith, Beverly J., Douglas A. Swartz, Olivia Miller, Jacob A. Burleson, Michael A. Nowak, and Curtis Struck. “ ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY .” The Astronomical Journal 143, no. 6 (May 11, 2012): 144. ©2012 Royal Astronomical Society. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/143/6/144 Astronomical Journal Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society American Astronomical Society |
| spellingShingle | Smith, Beverly J. Swartz, Douglas A. Miller, Olivia Burleson, Jacob A. Nowak, Michael A. Struck, Curtis ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title | ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title_full | ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title_fullStr | ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title_full_unstemmed | ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title_short | ChAInGeS: THE CHANDRA ARP INTERACTING GALAXIES SURVEY |
| title_sort | chainges the chandra arp interacting galaxies survey |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92878 |
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