No Arabic abstract
We present a study of the diffuse X-ray emission from the star forming region LMC-N 57 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We use archival XMM-Newton observations to unveil in detail the distribution of hot bubbles in this complex. X-ray emission is detected from the central superbubble (SB) DEM L 229, the supernova remnant (SNR) 0532$-$675 and the Wolf-Rayet (WR) bubble DEM L 231 around the WR star Br 48. Comparison with infrared images unveils the powerful effect of massive stars in destroying their nurseries. The distribution of the hot gas in the SNR and the SB display their maxima in regions in contact with the filamentary cold material detected by IR images. Our observations do not reveal extended X-ray emission filling DEM L 231, although several point-like sources are detected in the field of view of this WR nebula. The X-ray properties of Br 48 are consistent with a binary WN4$+$O as proposed by other authors. We modeled the X-ray emission from the SB and found that its X-ray emission can be simply explained by pressure-driven wind model, that is, there is no need to invoke the presence of a SN explosion as previously suggested. The pressure calculations of the hot gas confirms that the dynamical evolution of the SB DEM L 229 is dominated by the stellar winds from the star cluster LH 76.
XMM-Newton has deeply changed our picture of X-ray emission of hot, massive stars. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy as well as monitoring of these objects helped us gain a deeper insight into the physics of single massive stars with or without magnetic fields, as well as of massive binary systems, where the stellar winds of both stars interact. These observations also revealed a number of previously unexpected features that challenge our understanding of the dynamics of the stellar winds of massive stars. I briefly summarize the results obtained over the past 15 years and highlight the perspectives for the next decade. It is anticipated that coordinated (X-ray and optical or UV) monitoring and time-critical observations of either single or binary massive stars will become the most important topics in this field over the coming years. Synergies with existing or forthcoming X-ray observatories (NuSTAR, Swift, eROSITA) will also play a major role and will further enhance the importance of XMM-Newton in our quest for understanding the physics of hot, massive stars.
The extreme environment provided by the Cartwheel ring is analyzed to study its X-ray and optical-UV properties. We compare the Cartwheel with the other members of its group and study the system as a whole in the X-ray band. We analyze the data of the Cartwheel galaxy obtained with XMM-Newton in two different periods (December 2004 and May 2005). We focus on the X-ray properties of the system and use the OM data to obtain additional information in the optical and UV bands. We detect a total of 8 sources associated with the Cartwheel galaxy and three in its vicinity, including G1 and G2, all at L >= 10^39 erg/s, that is the Ultra Luminous X-ray (ULX) source range. The brightest ULX source has been already discussed elsewhere. The spectra of the next three brightest ULX are well fitted by a power-law model with a mean photon index of ~2. We compare the XMM-Newton and Chandra datasets to study the long-term variability of the sources. At least three sources vary in the 5 months between the two XMM-Newton observations and at least four in the 4-year timeframe between Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. One Chandra source disappears and a new one is detected by XMM-Newton in the ring. Optical-UV colors of the Cartwheel ring are consistent with a burst of star formation that is close to reaching its maximum, yielding a mean stellar age of about 40 Myr. The inferred variability and age suggest that high mass X-ray binaries are the counterparts to the ULX sources. The 3 companion galaxies have luminosities in the range 10^39-40 erg/s consistent with expectations. The hot gas of the Cartwheel galaxy is luminous and abundant (a few 10^8 Msol) and is found both in the outer ring, and in the inner part of the galaxy, behind the shock wave front. We also detect gas in the group with L_X ~10^40 erg/s.
We examine four high resolution reflection grating spectrometers (RGS) spectra of the February 2009 outburst of the luminous recurrent nova LMC 2009a. They were very complex and rich in intricate absorption and emission features. The continuum was consistent with a dominant component originating in the atmosphere of a shell burning white dwarf (WD) with peak effective temperature between 810,000 K and a million K, and mass in the 1.2-1.4 M$_odot$ range. A moderate blue shift of the absorption features of a few hundred km s$^{-1}$ can be explained with a residual nova wind depleting the WD surface at a rate of about 10$^{-8}$ M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$. The emission spectrum seems to be due to both photoionization and shock ionization in the ejecta. The supersoft X-ray flux was irregularly variable on time scales of hours, with decreasing amplitude of the variability. We find that both the period and the amplitude of another, already known 33.3 s modulation, varied within timescales of hours. We compared N LMC 2009a with other Magellanic Clouds novae, including 4 serendipitously discovered as supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) among 13 observed within 16 years after the eruption. The new detected targets were much less luminous than expected: we suggest that they were partially obscured by the accretion disk. Lack of SSS detections in the Magellanic Clouds novae more than 5.5 years after the eruption constrains the average duration of the nuclear burning phase.
X-ray emitting gaseous coronae around massive galaxies are a basic prediction of galaxy formation models. Although the coronae around spiral galaxies offer a fundamental test of these models, observational constraints on their characteristics are still scarce. While the presence of extended hot coronae has been established around a handful of massive spiral galaxies, the short X-ray observations only allowed for measurements of the basic characteristics of the coronae. In this work, we utilize deep XMM-Newton observations of NGC 6753 to explore its extended X-ray corona in unprecedented detail. Specifically, we establish the isotropic morphology of the hot gas, suggesting that it resides in hydrostatic equilibrium. The temperature profile of the gas shows a decrease with increasing radius: it drops from $kTapprox0.7$ keV in the innermost parts to $kTapprox0.4$ keV at 50 kpc radius. The temperature map reveals the complex temperature structure of the gas. We study the metallicity distribution of the gas, which is uniform at $Zapprox0.1$ Solar. This value is about an order of magnitude lower than that obtained for elliptical galaxies with similar dark matter halo mass, hinting that the hot gas in spiral galaxies predominantly originates from external gas inflows rather than from internal sources. By extrapolating the density profile of the hot gas out to the virial radius, we estimate the total gas mass and derive the total baryon mass of NGC 6753. We conclude that the baryon mass fraction is $f_{rm b} approx 0.06$, implying that about half of the baryons are missing.
X-ray emitting atmospheres of non-rotating early-type galaxies and their connection to central active galactic nuclei have been thoroughly studied over the years. However, in systems with significant angular momentum, processes of heating and cooling are likely to proceed differently. We present an analysis of the hot atmospheres of six lenticulars and a spiral galaxy to study the effects of angular momentum on the hot gas properties. We find an alignment between the hot gas and the stellar distribution, with the ellipticity of the X-ray emission generally lower than that of the optical stellar emission, consistent with theoretical predictions for rotationally-supported hot atmospheres. The entropy profiles of NGC 4382 and the massive spiral galaxy NGC 1961 are significantly shallower than the entropy distribution in other galaxies, suggesting the presence of strong heating (via outflows or compressional) in the central regions of these systems. Finally, we investigate the thermal (in)stability of the hot atmospheres via criteria such as the TI- and C-ratio, and discuss the possibility that the discs of cold gas present in these objects have condensed out of the hot atmospheres.