DEEP CHANDRA MONITORING OBSERVATIONS OF NGC 4649. I. CATALOG OF SOURCE PROPERTIES
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- UCO/Lick Observatory, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1582 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- Physics Department, University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, GR-710 03, Heraklion, Crete (Greece)
We present the X-ray source catalog for the Chandra monitoring observations of the elliptical galaxy, NGC 4649. The galaxy has been observed with Chandra ACIS-S3 in six separate pointings, reaching a total exposure of 299 ks. There are 501 X-ray sources detected in the 0.3-8.0 keV band in the merged observation or in one of the six individual observations; 399 sources are located within the D{sub 25} ellipse. The observed 0.3-8.0 keV luminosities of these 501 sources range from 9.3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 36} erg s{sup -1} to 5.4 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 39} erg s{sup -1}. The 90% detection completeness limit within the D{sub 25} ellipse is 5.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 37} erg s{sup -1}. Based on the surface density of background active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and detection completeness, we expect Almost-Equal-To 45 background AGNs among the catalog sources ( Almost-Equal-To 15 within the D{sub 25} ellipse). There are nine sources with luminosities greater than 10{sup 39} erg s{sup -1}, which are candidates for ultraluminous X-ray sources. The nuclear source of NGC 4649 is a low-luminosity AGN, with an intrinsic 2.0-8.0 keV X-ray luminosity of 1.5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 38} erg s{sup -1}. The X-ray colors suggest that the majority of the catalog sources are low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We find that 164 of the 501 X-ray sources show long-term variability, indicating that they are accreting compact objects. We discover four transient candidates and another four potential transients. We also identify 173 X-ray sources (141 within the D{sub 25} ellipse) that are associated with globular clusters (GCs) based on Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based data; these LMXBs tend to be hosted by red GCs. Although NGC 4649 has a much larger population of X-ray sources than the structurally similar early-type galaxies, NGC 3379 and NGC 4278, the X-ray source properties are comparable in all three systems.
- OSTI ID:
- 22089676
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 204, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0067-0049
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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