A Multi-coloured survey of NGC 253 with XMM-Newton

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dc.creatorBarnard, R.
dc.creatorGreening, L. Shaw
dc.creatorKolb, U.
dc.date2007-10-25
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T08:38:38Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T08:38:38Z
dc.descriptionThere is a large body of work that has used the excellent Chandra observations of nearby galaxies with neglible low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) populations. This has culminated in a ``Universal'' X-ray luminosity function (XLF) for high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). However, a number of methods have been used to convert from source intensities to luminosities when creating these XLFs. We have taken advantage of the XMM-Newton observations of the nearby starbursting spiral galaxy NGC 253 to test some of these methods. We find the luminosities derived from these various methods to vary by a factor of $\sim$3. We also find the most influential factor in the conversion from intensity to luminosity to be the absorption. We therefore conclude that a more consistent approach is required for determining the true Universal XLF for HMXBs. Ideally, this would involve individual spectral fitting of each X-ray source. Certainly, the line-of-sight absorption should be determined from the observations rather than assuming Galactic absorption. We find the best approach for obtaining an XLF from low-count data to be the splitting of the X-ray sources into two or more intensity intervals, and obtaining a conversion from intensity to flux for each group from spectral modelling of the summed spectrum of that group.
dc.descriptionTo appear in the proceedings of "X-rays from Nearby Galaxies", 4-7 Septembeer 2007, 4 pages
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0710.4893
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0710.4893
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/140799
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleA Multi-coloured survey of NGC 253 with XMM-Newton
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