X-ray background measurements with XMM-Newton EPIC

By D. Lumb, R. Warwick, M. Page, Andrea De Luca. 2002

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We discuss the methods used to compile a high signal-to-noise dataset representative of both the instrumental and cosmic background signal measured at high galactic latitude by the XMM-Newton EPIC cameras. The characteristics of the EPIC background are described and the potential applications of the de- rived dataset in general science analysis are outlined. In the case of the cosmic X-ray background, the tran- sition between a hard power-law spectrum (due to the integrated emission of unresolved, largely extragalac- tic, point sources) and a softer thermal spectrum (produced by hot plasma associated with the Galactic plane and halo) is unambiguously detected around 1 keV. We derive a value for the intensity of the power-law component of 2:15 0:26 10 11 erg cm 2 s 1 deg 2 in the 2{10 keV band (normalisation at 1 keV of 11.1 photons cm 2 s 1 sr 1 keV 1 ). The implication is that recent, very deep Chandra observations have re- solved70{90% of the 2{10 keV background into discrete sources. Our measurement is towards the higher end of the range of quoted background normalisations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f66d4b09764c8bc0e06878e48473fb18d15ed92a

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Citations in the corpus

Reflections of Active Galactic Nucleus Outbursts in the Gaseous Atmosphere of M87 (2003, methodology): “The MOS background was calculated using the blank field data accumulated over a large number of observations (Lumb et al. 2002).”
The 2-10 keV luminosity as a Star Formation Rate indicator (2002, methodology): “For the observed 2–10 keV background we take the XMM-Newton value of 2.15 · 10−11 erg s−1 cm−2 (Lumb et al. 2002), which is comprised between the ASCA (Gendreau et al. 1995) and BeppoSAX (Vecchi et al. 1999) figures.”
The synthesis of the cosmic X-ray background in the Chandra and XMM-Newton era (2006, methodology): “In the deepest X-ray surveys to date, i.e. the 800 ksec XMM-Newton Lockman Hole (Hasinger 2004), the 1 Msec Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS, Giacconi et al. 2002) and the 2 Msec Chandra Deep Field North (CDFN, Alexander et al. 2003), the summed X-ray fluxes of the detected sources account for virtual”
Chandra Temperature Profiles for a Sample of Nearby Relaxed Galaxy Clusters (2004, methodology): “The soft X-ray background was studied with Chandra by Markevitch et al. (2003) and XMM-Newton by Lumb et al. (2002).”
Scaling Properties of a Complete X-ray Selected Galaxy Group Sample (2014, background): “All these different components exhibit different spectral and temporal characteristics (e.g., Lumb et al. 2002; Read & Ponman 2003; Kuntz & Snowden 2008; Snowden et al. 2008).”
XMM-Newton Observations of the Perseus Cluster. I. The Temperature and Surface Brightness Structure (2003, methodology): “225 charged particles (e.g., Lumb et al. 2002).”
Constraints on sterile neutrinos as dark matter candidates from the diffuse X-ray background (2005, methodology): “Below ∼15 keV, the XRB was measured by many X-ray missions and the background was found to follow a power law with photon index XRB 1.3–1.4 (Gruber et al. 1999; Lumb et al. 2002; Revnivtsev et al. 2003; Revnivtsev et al. 2005; Gilli 2003; Barger 2003).”
Gas entropy in a representative sample of nearby X-ray galaxy clusters (REXCESS): relationship to gas mass fraction (2009, methodology): “We then fitted the FWC-subtracted spectrum of an annular region external to the cluster emission with a physically motivated model of the cosmic X-ray background, consisting of tw MeKaL components plus an absorbed power law with a fixed slope ofΓ = 1.4 (see Lumb et al. 2002; De Luca & Molendi 2004).”
The structural and scaling properties of nearby galaxy clusters. I. The universal mass profile (2005, methodology): “We usedXMM-Newton dedicated blank field datasets from either Lumb et al. (2002), or Read & Ponman (2003) to obtain a background event list associated with each data set2.”
Spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy of cooling clusters of galaxies (2003, unknown): “The background spectrum of the XMM-Newton EPIC camera’s is described in detail by Lumb et al. (2002).”
INTEGRAL observations of the cosmic X-ray background in the 5–100 keV range via occultation by the Earth (2006, background): “…(see e.g. Horstman-Moretti et al. 1974; Mazets et al. 1975; Kinzer, Johnson, & Kurfess 1978; Marshall et al. 1980; McCammon et al. 1983; Kinzer et al. 1997; Vecchi et al. 1999; Gruber et al. 1999; Kushino et al. 2002; Lumb et al. 2002; Revnivtsev et al. 2003, 2005; Hickox & Markevitch 2006).”
The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS Field: Statistical Properties of Clusters of Galaxies (2006, methodology): “The sky background consists of the foreground galactic emission as well as unresolved X-ray background and its angular distribution on scales of individual observation could be considered as flat on the sky, therefore following the sensitivity map of the instrument (Lumb et al. 2002).”
Deep radio imaging of the SCUBA 8-mJy survey fields: submillimetre source identifications and redshift distribution (2002, background): “Energy channels contaminated by the strong instrumental emission lines (Lumb et al. 2002) were excluded from the images.”
The EPIC-MOS particle-induced background spectra (2008, methodology): “3 and Lumb et al. 2002).”