(Abridged) We present a deep Chandra observation of the late-type barred spiral galaxy NGC 2903. The Chandra data reveal soft (kT_e ~ 0.2-0.5keV) diffuse emission in the nuclear starburst region and extending ~5kpc to the north and west of the nucleu
s. Much of this soft hot gas is likely to be from local active star-forming regions; however, besides the nuclear region, the morphology of hot gas does not strongly correlate with sites of active star formation. The central ~650 pc radius starburst zone exhibits much higher surface brightness diffuse emission than the surrounding regions and a harder spectral component in addition to its soft component. We interpret the hard component as being of thermal origin with kT_e~3.6keV and to be directly associated with a wind fluid produced by supernovae and massive star winds. The inferred terminal velocity for this hard component, ~1100 km/s, exceeds the local galaxy escape velocity suggesting a potential outflow. The softer extended emission does not display an obvious outflow geometry. However, the column density through which the X-rays are transmitted is lower to the west of the nucleus compared to the east and the surface brightness is higher there suggesting some soft hot gas originates from above the disk; viewed directly from the western zone but through the intervening galaxy disk from the eastern zone. There are several point-like sources in the nuclear region with X-ray spectra typical of compact binaries. None of these are coincident with the mass center of the galaxy and we place an upper limit luminosity from any point-like nuclear source to be < 2x10^38 ergs/s in the 0.5-8.0keV band which indicates that NGC 2903 lacks an active galactic nucleus. Heating from the nuclear starburst and a galactic wind may be responsible for preventing cold gas from accreting onto the galactic center.
We have conducted a statistical analysis of the ultra-luminous X-ray point sources (ULXs; L(X) >= 10^39 erg/s) in a sample of galaxies selected from the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. We find a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2-4 in the number
of ULXs per blue luminosity for the strongly interacting subset. Such an enhancement would be expected if ULX production is related to star formation, as interacting galaxies tend to have enhanced star formation rates on average. For most of the Arp galaxies in our sample, the total number of ULXs compared to the far-infrared luminosity is consistent with values found earlier for spiral galaxies. This suggests that for these galaxies, ULXs trace recent star formation. However, for the most infrared-luminous galaxies, we find a deficiency of ULXs compared to the infrared luminosity. For these very infrared-luminous galaxies, AGNs may contribute to powering the far-infrared; alternatively, ULXs may be highly obscured in the X-ray in these galaxies and therefore not detected by these Chandra observations. We determined local UV/optical colors within the galaxies in the vicinity of the candidate ULXs using GALEX UV and SDSS optical images. In most cases, the distributions of colors are similar to the global colors of interacting galaxies. However, the u - g and r - i colors at the ULX locations tend to be bluer on average than these global colors, suggesting that ULXs are preferentially found in regions with young stellar populations. In the Arp sample there is a possible enhancement of a factor of ~2 - 5 in the fraction of galactic nuclei that are X-ray bright compared to more normal spirals.
The M81 group member dwarf galaxy IC 2574 hosts a supergiant shell of current and recent star-formation activity surrounding a 1000 x 500 pc hole in the ambient Hi gas distribution. Chandra X-ray Observatory imaging observations reveal a luminous, L_
x ~ 6.5 x 10^{38} erg/s in the 0.3 - 8.0 keV band, point-like source within the hole but offset from its center and fainter diffuse emission extending throughout and beyond the hole. The star formation history at the location of the point source indicates a burst of star formation beginning ~25 Myr ago and currently weakening and there is a young nearby star cluster, at least 5 Myr old, bracketing the likely age of the X-ray source at between 5 and ~25 Myr. The source is thus likely a bright high-mass X-ray binary --- either a neutron star or black hole accreting from an early B star undergoing thermal-timescale mass transfer through Roche lobe overflow. The properties of the residual diffuse X-ray emission are consistent with those expected from hot gas associated with the recent star-formation activity in the region.
One hundred seven ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) sources with 0.3-10.0 keV luminosities in excess of 1e39 erg/s are identified in a complete sample of 127 nearby galaxies. The sample includes all galaxies within 14.5 Mpc above the completeness limits of b
oth the Uppsala Galaxy Catalog and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite survey. The galaxy sample spans all Hubble types, a four decade range in mass and in star-formation rate. ULXs are detected in this sample at rates of one per 3.2e10 solar mass, one per 0.5 solar mass/year star-formation rate, and one per 57 cubic Mpc corresponding to a luminosity density of ~2e37 erg/s/Mpc3. At these rates we estimate as many as 19 additional ULXs remain undetected in fainter dwarf galaxies within the survey volume. An estimated 14 or 13%, of the 107 ULX candidates are expected to be background sources. The differential ULX luminosity function shows a power law slope of -1.2 to -2.0 with an exponential cutoff at 2e40 erg/s with precise values depending on the model and on whether the ULX luminosities are estimated from their observed numbers of counts or, for a subset of candidates, from their spectral shapes. Extrapolating the observed luminosity function predicts at most one very luminous ULX, L~1e41 erg/s, within a distance as small as 100 Mpc. The luminosity distribution of ULXs within the local universe cannot account for the recent claims of luminosities in excess of 2e41 erg/s requiring a new population class to explain these extreme objects.
