M 83 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

The authors of this table have obtained a series of deep X-ray images of the nearby (4.61 Mpc) galaxy M 83 using Chandra, with a total exposure of 729 ks. Combining the new data with earlier archival observations totaling 61 ks, they find 378 point sources within the D&lt;sub&gt;25&lt;/sub&gt; contour of the galaxy. The authors find 80 more sources, mostly background active galactic nuclei (AGNs), outside of the D&lt;sub&gt;25&lt;/sub&gt; contour. Of the X-ray sources, 47 have been detected in a new radio survey of M 83 obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). Of the X-ray sources, at least 87 seem likely to be supernova remnants (SNRs), based on a combination of their properties in X-rays and at other wavelengths. The authors attempt to classify the point source population of M 83 through a combination of spectral and temporal analysis. As part of this effort, in the reference paper they carry out an initial spectral analysis of the 29 brightest X-ray sources. The soft X-ray sources in the disk, many of which are SNRs, are associated with the spiral arms, while the harder X-ray sources, mostly X-ray binaries (XRBs), do not appear to be. After eliminating AGNs, foreground stars, and identified SNRs from the sample, the authors construct the cumulative luminosity function (CLF) of XRBs brighter than 8 x 10&lt;sup&gt;35&lt;/sup&gt; erg s&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. Despite M 83&#39;s relatively high star formation rate, the CLF indicates that most of the XRBs in the disk are low mass X-ray binaries (XRBs). The X-ray observations of M 83 in this survey were all carried out with the ACIS-S in order to maximize the sensitivity to soft X-ray sources, such as SNRs, and to diffuse emission. The nucleus of M 83 was centered in the field of the back-illuminated S3 chip to provide reasonably uniform coverage of M 83. In addition to the S3 chip, data were also obtained from chips S1, S2, S4, I2, and I3. All of the observations were made in the &quot;very faint&quot; mode to optimize background subtraction. Observations were spaced over a period of one year from 2010 December to 2011 December, as indicated in Table 1 of the reference paper. The only difference among observations was the roll orientation of the spacecraft and the differing exposure times. All of the observations were nominal, and yielded a total of 729 ks of useful data. In order to maximize their sensitivity and more importantly to improve their ability to identify time variable sources, the authors included in their analysis earlier Chandra observations of M 83 in 2000 and 2001 totaling 61 ks which were obtained by G. Rieke (Prop ID. 1600489) and by A. Prestwich (Prop ID. 267005758). These data were obtained in a very similar manner to that of the present survey, and increased the total exposure to 790 ks. The authors used ACIS EXTRACT (AE) to derive net count rates from the sources in various energy bands: 0.35 - 8.0 keV (total or T), 0.35 - 1.1 keV (soft or S), 1.1 - 2.6 keV (medium or M), 2.6 - 8.0 keV (hard or H), 0.5 - 2.0 keV (&quot;normal&quot; soft band) and 2.0 - 8.0 keV (&quot;normal&quot; hard band). Their choice of these bands was based on a variety of overlapping goals. The broad 0.35 - 8.0 keV band samples the full energy range accessible to Chandra observations. The three bands S, M and H provide energy ranges intended to classify sources on the basis of their hardness ratios. The boundary at 1.1 keV, in particular, is just above the region containing strong features due to Ne and Fe seen in the spectra of most SNRs. The 0.5 - 2.0 keV and 2.0 - 8.0 keV bands are needed because number counts of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and of X-ray binary populations are normally carried out in these bands and because the 0.5 - 2.0 keV band, encompassing the peak of the response curve, provides better statistics for some purposes than S+M. The AE count rates were used to establish which of the sources in the candidate list were statistically valid. The authors retained any source that had a probability-of-no-source &lt; 5 x 10&lt;sup&gt;-6&lt;/sup&gt; in any one of these bands in the total data set. For their final run of AE, their list of source candidates had 847 potential sources. Of those, they find a total of 458 valid point sources, whose properties are listed in this table. Of the 458 point sources, 378 are located within the area defined by the D&lt;sub&gt;25&lt;/sub&gt; ellipse of the galaxy (which the authors take to have a major axis diameter of 12.9 arcminutes), and the remaining 80 are outside this region. There were 43 sources in the nuclear region (defined to be any source within a projected radius of 0.5 kpc from the optical nucleus). This table was created by the HEASARC in July 2014 based on electronic versions of Tables 3, 4 and 5 from the reference paper which were obtained from the ApJS website. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration