Origin of cosmic X-rays from Milky Way disk

Research report (imported) 2005 - Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

Authors
Sazonov, Sergey; Revnivtsev, Mike
Departments
Hochenergie-Astrophysik (Prof. Dr. Rashid Sunyaev)
MPI für Astrophysik, Garching
Summary
Abstract In order to solve the puzzle of the origin of the Galactic ridge X-ray mission (GXRE), its spatial distribution was studied in detail with the RXTE observatory. The obtained X-ray map is very similar to the near-infrared map of the Galactic disk and bulge, which implies that the GRXE closely traces the stellar population of the Galaxy. In the second part of this study RXTE and ROSAT observations were used to evaluate the total volume emissivity of faint X-ray sources in the Solar neighborhood. Based on this estimate it was shown that the bulk of the GRXE is likely a superposition of emission from thousands of cataclysmic variables and millions of coronally active stars.

For the full text, see the German version.

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