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Register a new userTales of tails: H$alpha$--X-ray correlation
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The impact of ram pressure stripping (RPS) on galaxy evolution has been studied for over forty years. Recent multi-wavelength data have revealed many examples of galaxies undergoing RPS, often accompanied with multi-phase tails. As energy transfer in the multi-phase medium is an outstanding question in astrophysics, RPS galaxies are great objects to study. Despite the recent burst of observational evidence, the relationship between gas in different phases in the RPS tails is poorly known. Here we report, for the first time, a strong linear correlation between the X-ray surface brightness (SB$_{rm X}$) and the H$alpha$ surface brightness (SB$_{rm Halpha}$) of the diffuse gas in the RPS tails at $sim$ 10 kpc scales, as SB$_{rm X}$/SB$_{rm Halpha} sim$ 3.6. This discovery supports the mixing of the stripped interstellar medium (ISM) with the hot intracluster medium (ICM) as the origin of the multi-phase RPS tails. The established relation in stripped tails, also in comparison with the likely similar correlation in similar environments like X-ray cool cores and galactic winds, provides an important test for models of energy transfer in the multi-phase gas. It also indicates the importance of the H$alpha$ data for our understanding of the ICM clumping and turbulence.
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We present the analysis of a deep Chandra observation of a ~2L_* late-type galaxy, ESO 137-002, in the closest rich cluster A3627. The Chandra data reveal a long (>40 kpc) and narrow tail with a nearly constant width (~3 kpc) to the southeast of the galaxy, and a leading edge ~1.5 kpc from the galaxy center on the upstream side of the tail. The tail is most likely caused by the nearly edge-on stripping of ESO 137-002s ISM by ram pressure, compared to the nearly face-on stripping of ESO 137-001 discussed in our previous work. Spectral analysis of individual regions along the tail shows that the gas throughout it has a rather constant temperature, ~1 keV, very close to the temperature of the tails of ESO 137-001, if the same atomic database is used. The derived gas abundance is low (~0.2 solar with the single-kT model), an indication of the multiphase nature of the gas in the tail. The mass of the X-ray tail is only a small fraction (<5%) of the initial ISM mass of the galaxy, suggesting that the stripping is most likely at an early stage. However, with any of the single-kT, double-kT and multi-kT models we tried, the tail is always over-pressured relative to the surrounding ICM, which could be due to the uncertainties in the abundance, thermal vs. non-thermal X-ray emission, or magnetic support in the ICM. The H-alpha data from SOAR show a ~21 kpc tail spatially coincident with the X-ray tail, as well as a secondary tail (~12 kpc long) to the east of the main tail diverging at an angle of ~23 degrees and starting at a distance of ~7.5 kpc from the nucleus. At the position of the secondary H-alpha tail, the X-ray emission is also enhanced at the ~2 sigma level. We compare the tails of ESO 137-001 and ESO 137-002, and also compare the tails to simulations. Both the similarities and differences of the tails pose challenges to the simulations. Several implications are briefly discussed.
Recent studies have highlighted the potential significance of intracluster medium (ICM) clumping and its important implications for cluster cosmology and baryon physics. Many of the ICM clumps can originate from infalling galaxies, as stripped interstellar medium (ISM) mixing into the hot ICM. However, a direct connection between ICM clumping and stripped ISM has not been unambiguously established before. Here we present the discovery of the first and still the only known isolated cloud (or orphan cloud, OC) detected in both X-rays and H$alpha$ in the nearby cluster Abell 1367. With an effective radius of 30 kpc, this cloud has an average X-ray temperature of 1.6 keV, a bolometric X-ray luminosity of $sim 3.1times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and a hot gas mass of $sim 10^{10} {rm M}_odot$. From the MUSE data, the OC shows an interesting velocity gradient nearly along the east-west direction with a low level of velocity dispersion of $sim 80$ km/s, which may suggest a low level of the ICM turbulence. The emission line diagnostics suggest little star formation in the main H$alpha$ cloud and a LI(N)ER-like spectrum, but the excitation mechanism remain unclear. This example shows that the stripped ISM, even long time after the initial removal from the galaxy, can still induce the ICM inhomogeneities. We suggest that magnetic field can stabilize the OC by suppressing hydrodynamic instabilities and thermal conduction. This example also suggests that at least some ICM clumps are multi-phase in nature and implies that the ICM clumps can also be traced in H$alpha$. Thus, future deep and wide-field H$alpha$ survey can be used to probe the ICM clumping and turbulence.
Prompted by the H I Ly$alpha$ absorption associated with the X-ray ultra-fast outflow at -17,300 $rm km~s^{-1}$ in the quasar PG~1211+143, we have searched archival UV spectra at the expected locations of H I Ly$alpha$ absorption for a large sample of ultra-fast outflows identified in XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations. Sixteen of the X-ray outflows have predicted H I Ly$alpha$ wavelengths falling within the bandpass of spectra from either the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer or the Hubble Space Telescope, although none of the archival observations were simultaneous with the X-ray observations in which UFOs were detected. In our spectra broad features with full-width at half-maximum of 1000 $rm km~s^{-1}$ have 2-$sigma$ upper limits on the H I column density of generally <$2times10^{13}~rm cm^{-2}$. Using grids of photoionization models covering a broad range of spectral energy distributions, we find that producing Fe XXVI Ly$alpha$ X-ray absorption with equivalent widths $>30$ eV and associated H I Ly$alpha$ absorption with $rm N_{HI}<2times10^{13}~cm^{-2}$ requires total absorbing column densities $rm N_{H}>5times10^{22}~cm^{-2}$ and ionization parameters log $xi$ > 3.7. Nevertheless, a wide range of SEDs would predict observable H I Ly$alpha$ absorption if ionization parameters are only slightly below peak ionization fractions for Fe XXV and Fe XXVI. The lack of Ly$alpha$ features in the archival UV spectra indicates that either the UFOs have very high ionization parameters, very hard UV-ionizing spectra, or that they were not present at the time of the UV spectral observations due to variability.
We present spectroscopic observations of the Be/X-ray binary X Per obtained during the period 1999 - 2018. Using new and published data, we found that during disc-rise the expansion velocity of the circumstellar disc is 0.4 - 0.7 km/s. Our results suggest that the disc radius in recent decades show evidence of resonant truncation of the disc by resonances 10:1, 3:1, and 2:1, while the maximum disc size is larger than the Roche lobe of the primary and smaller than the closest approach of the neutron star. We find correlation between equivalent width of H-alpha emission line ($Walpha$) and the X-ray flux, which is visible when $15 : AA : < Walpha le 40 : AA$. The correlation is probably due to wind Roche lobe overflow.
We report an anticorrelation between continuum luminosity and the equivalent width (EW) of the H-alpha emission line in X-ray binary systems. The effect is evident both in a universal monotonic increase in H-alpha EW with time following outbursts, as systems fade, and in a comparison between measured EWs and contemporaneous X-ray measurements. The effect is most clear for black hole binaries in the low/hard X-ray state, which is prevalent at X-ray luminosities below ~1% Eddington. We do not find strong evidence for significant changes in line profiles across accretion state changes, but this is hampered by a lack of good data at such times. The observed anti-correlation, highly significant for black hole binaries, is only marginally so for neutron star systems, for which there are far less data. Comparison with previously established correlations between optical and X-ray luminosity suggest that the line luminosity is falling as the X-ray and optical luminosities drop, but not as fast (approximately as L_{H-alpha} propto L_X^{~0.4} propto L_{opt}^{~0.7}). We briefly discuss possible origins for such an effect, including the optical depth, form of the irradiating spectrum and geometry of the accetion flow. Further refinement of the relation in the future may allow measurements of H-alpha EW to be used to estimate the luminosity of, and hence the distance to, X-ray binary systems. Beyond this, further progress will require a better sample of spectro-photometric data.
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