Issue |
A&A
Volume 440, Number 1, September II 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 23 - 37 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20042598 | |
Published online | 19 August 2005 |
The X-ray luminosity function and number counts of spiral galaxies
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: piero.ranalli@bo.astro.it
2
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Astronomia, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
3
INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 1, 40129 Bologna, Italy
Received:
22
December
2004
Accepted:
23
March
2005
We discuss the X-ray luminosity function and number counts
of normal spiral galaxies. A detailed comparison is performed of the
LFs compiled at infrared, radio and optical wavelengths and
converted into XLFs using available relations in the literature with
the XLF directly estimated in the 0.5–2 keV energy band from X-ray
surveys. We find that the XLF from the local sample of IRAS galaxies
provides a good representation of all available data samples; pure
luminosity evolution of the form , with
, is favoured over pure density evolution. We also find that the
local X-ray luminosity density is well defined,
erg s-1 Mpc-3.
We discuss different estimates of the galaxies Log N-Log S, selected
from the Chandra Deep Field surveys with different selection
criteria, and find that these have similar slopes, but
normalisations scattered within a factor ~2 (which is not far
from the Poissonian error on the number counts). We then compare the
observed galaxies Log N-Log S with the counts predicted by the
integration of our reference
XLF. From the analysis of number
counts alone, it is not possible to discriminate between density and
luminosity evolution; however, the evolution of galaxies must be
stopped in both cases at a redshift
. The
contribution of galaxies to the cosmic X-ray background is found
to be in the range
. By means of a complementary
analysis with cosmic star formation models, we also find that the
observed X-ray number counts might be not compatible with very high
star formation rates at
as suggested by sub-mm
observations.
Concerning the content of current and, possibly, future X-ray
surveys, we determine the fraction of normal galaxies around the
current flux limit. At ~
erg s-1 cm-2 in the 0.5-2.0 keV
band, the normal galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field surveys are
about the
of the total number of objects. At fainter
fluxes the fraction of galaxies will probably rise, and exceed the
counts from AGN at fluxes
10-17 erg s-1 cm-2.
Key words: X-rays: galaxies / galaxies: luminosity function, mass function / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: high-redshift / infrared: galaxies / galaxies: spiral
© ESO, 2005
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