X-ray emission mechanisms of LINERs
Abstract
We present here an analysis of the X-ray properties of a sample of LINER galaxies observed with the ROSAT PSPC and HRI instruments. A spatial analysis shows that the bulk of the X-ray emission is consistent with arising from a point source; some extended emission appears at weak emission levels. The X-ray spectra are formally best described by a powerlaw with photon index Gamma_x ~ -2 or thermal emission from a Raymond-Smith plasma with highly subsolar abundances (Z < 0.1). Several emission mechanisms that might contribute to the observed X-ray spectra are discussed. In particular, we take the very subsolar abundances derived from Raymond-Smith fits as an indication of a more complex emission mechanism, like the presence of a second hard component or plasma out of collisional-ionization equilibrium.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9907092,
title = {X-ray emission mechanisms of LINERs},
author = {Stefanie Komossa and Dieter Breitschwerdt and Hans Boehringer and Janek Meerschweinchen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9907092},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages incl. 2 figures (needs crckapb.sty); contribution to the proc. of `Astrophysical Dynamics' (Evora, April 14-16, 1999), D. Berry, D. Breitschwerdt, A. da Costa, J. Dyson (eds); to appear in Ap&SS. Preprint and related papers are available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/~skomossa/