Origin of the scatter in the X-ray luminosity of early-type galaxies observed with ROSAT
Preprint
- 18 September 2000
Abstract
Statistical properties of X-ray luminosity and temperature are studied for 52 early-type galaxies based on the ROSAT PSPC data. All of the X-ray luminous galaxies show largely extended emission with a radius of a few times of 10$r_e$, while X-ray faint galaxies do not show such a component. This leads to a division of early-type galaxies into two categories: X-ray extended and X-ray compact galaxies. Except for a few galaxies in dense cluster environments, the luminosity and temperature of X-ray compact galaxies are well explained by a kinematical heating of the gas supplied by stellar mass loss. In contrast, X-ray extended galaxies indicate large scatter in the X-ray luminosity. We discuss that X-ray extended galaxies are the central objects of large potential structures, and the presence and absence of this potential is the main origin of the large scatter in the X-ray luminosity.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Version 1, 2000-09-18, ArXiv
- Published version: The Astrophysical Journal, 547 (2), 693.
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