X-ray luminosity-star formation rate scaling relation: Constraints from the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS)

¹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Pasteura 7, 02-093 Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: gabriele.riccio@ncbj.gov.pl
² Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
³ SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
⁴ Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, CNES, LAM, Rue Frédéric Joliot Curie 38, Marseille, France
⁵ Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Casilla 7D, Arica, Chile
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Naples Federico II, C.U. Monte Sant’Angelo, Via Cinthia, 80126 Naples, Italy
⁷ INFN – Sezione di Napoli, Strada Comunale Cinthia 6, 80126 Naples, Italy
⁸ INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Via Moiariello 16, 30131 Naples, Italy
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Via Piero Gobetti 93/2, 40129 Bologna, Italy
¹⁰ INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy

Received: 10 May 2023
Accepted: 7 August 2023

Abstract

Aims. We present measurements of the relation between X-ray luminosity and star formation activity for a sample of normal galaxies spanning the redshift range between 0 and 0.25. We use data acquired by SRG/eROSITA for the performance and verification phase program called eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS). The eFEDS galaxies are observed in the 0.2−2.3 keV band.

Methods. Making use of a wide range of ancillary data, spanning from the ultraviolet (UV) to mid-infrared wavelengths (MIR), we estimated the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M_star) of 888 galaxies, using Code Investigating GALaxy Emission (CIGALE). In order to study sources whose X-ray emission is dominated by X-ray binaries (XRBs), we classified these galaxies into normal galaxies and active galactic nuclei by making use of the observed fluxes in the X-ray, optical, and MIR ranges, as well as the results from the SED fitting. To isolate the contribution of XRBs, which scale with the SFR and M_star, we subtracted the contribution of hot gas, coronally active binaries, and cataclysmic variables to the total X-ray emission. We divided our sample of normal galaxies in star-forming (SFGs) and quiescent galaxies according to their position on the main sequence.

Results. We confirm a linear correlation between the X-ray luminosity and the SFR for our sample of SFGs, shown previously in the literature. However, we find this relation to be strongly biased by the completeness limit of the eFEDS survey. Correcting for completeness, we find the fitted relation to be consistent with the literature. We also investigated the relation between X-ray emission from both LMXBs and HMXBs populations with M_star and SFR, respectively. Correcting for completeness, we find our fitted relation to considerably scatter from the literature relation at high specific SFR (SFR/M_star). We conclude that without accounting for X-ray non-detections, it is not possible to employ eFEDS data to study the redshift evolution of the LMXBs and HMXBs contributions due to completeness issues. Furthermore, we find our sources to largely scatter from the expected Lx/SFR vs. specific SFR relation at high redshift. We discuss the dependence of the scatter on the stellar mass, metallicity, or the globular cluster content of the galaxy.