SOURCE CONTAMINATION IN X-RAY STUDIES OF STAR-FORMING REGIONS: APPLICATION TO THE CHANDRA CARINA COMPLEX PROJECT

Journal Article · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/194/1/3· OSTI ID:21560394

Getman, Konstantin V; Broos, Patrick S; Feigelson, Eric D; Townsley, Leisa K; Povich, Matthew S; Garmire, Gordon P ^[1]; Montmerle, Thierry ^[2]; Yonekura, Yoshinori ^[3]; Fukui, Yasuo ^[4]

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1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
2. Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis bd Arago, FR 75014 Paris (France)
3. Department of Physical Science, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531 (Japan)
4. Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan)

We describe detailed simulations of X-ray-emitting populations to evaluate the levels of contamination by both Galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources unrelated to a star-forming region under study. For Galactic contaminations, we consider contribution from main-sequence stars and giants (not including cataclysmic variables and other classes of accretion-driven X-ray binary systems), as they make the dominant contribution at the position of the Carina Nebula. The simulations take into consideration a variety of technical factors involving a Galactic population synthesis model, stellar X-ray luminosity functions, Chandra telescope response, source detection methodology, and possible spatial variations in the X-ray background and absorption through molecular clouds. When applied to the 1.42 deg{sup 2} field of the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), the simulations predict {approx}5000 contaminating sources (1 source arcmin{sup -2} of the survey), evenly distributed across the field. The results of the simulations are further employed in a companion CCCP study to assign membership probabilities to individual sources.

• OSTI ID: 21560394
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 194; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
GALAXIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
NEBULAE
RADIATION SOURCES
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
STARS
X RADIATION
X-RAY SOURCES