M31PHATSFH - M 31 Disk Chandra PHAT Survey: HST-Derived Star Formation History

Overview

The X-ray source populations within galaxies are typically difficult to identify and classify with X-ray data alone. The authors break through this barrier by combining deep new Chandra ACIS-I observations with extensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) of the M 31 disk. They detect 373 X-ray sources down to 0.35-8.0keV flux of 10^-15erg/cm^-2/s over 0.4deg², 170 of which are reported for the first time. The authors identify optical counterpart candidates for 188 of the 373 sources, after using the HST data to correct the absolute astrometry of our Chandra imaging to 0.1". These data are available at M31PHATCXO.

For point-like counterparts, the authors examine the star formation history of the surrounding stellar populations to look for a young component that could be associated with a high-mass X-ray binary. This table presents the star formation histories for a subset of sources in the M31PHATCXO catalog.

About one-third of the point sources are not physically associated with a young population, and are therefore more likely to be background galaxies. For the 40 point-like counterpart candidates associated with young populations, the authors find that their age distribution has two peaks at 15-20Myr and 40-50Myr. Considering only the 8 counterpart candidates with typical high-mass main-sequence optical star colors, their age distribution peaks mimic those of the sample of 40. Finally, the authors find that intrinsic faintness, and not extinction, is the main limitation for finding further counterpart candidates.

In 2015 October, the authors observed the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) footprint with Chandra with 7 pointings. The footprints are overlaid on a GALEX NUV image of M 31, along with the corresponding HST coverage, in Figure 1 of the reference paper. At each pointing they observed for about 50 ks in VF mode (Chandra ObsID 17008 to 17014 spanning 2015 Oct 06 to 2015 Oct 26).

Catalog Bibcode

2018ApJS..239...13W

References

Comparing Chandra and Hubble in the northern disk of M31.
    Williams B.F., Lazzarini M., Plucinsky P.P., Sasaki M., Antoniou V.,
    Vulic N., Eracleous M., Long K.S., Binder B., Dalcanton J.J., Lewis A.R.,
    Weisz D.R.
   <Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser., 239, 13-13 (2018)>
   =2018ApJS..239...13W

Provenance

This table was created by the HEASARC in April 2020 based upon the CDS Catalog J/ApJS/239/13 file table7.dat.

Parameters

Entry_Number
The unique sequential identification number for each entry in the catalog was created by the HEASARC to differentiate entries with same name.

Name
The catalog source designation, as registered by the CDS Dictionary of Nomenclature, e.g., in the form of '[WLP2018] CXO HHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s' where the HHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s are based on the source's right ascension and declination coordinates. This name matches the name in the associated M31PHATCXO catalog table.

Age_Lower
The lower edge of the age bin.

Age_Upper
The higher edge of the age bin.

Prob_HMXB
The probability that the HMXB system falls in the age bin (described by the range age_lower to age_upper), which is based on the local star formation history of the region surrounding the X-ray source. Section 3.2.3 of the reference paper provides the details for this calculation.

Prob_HMXB_Pos_Err
The positive uncertainty in the probability that the HMXB system falls in the age bin (described by the range age_lower to age_upper), which is based on the local star formation history of the region surrounding the X-ray source.

Prob_HMXB_Neg_Err
The negative uncertainty in the probability that the HMXB system falls in the age bin (described by the range age_lower to age_upper), which is based on the local star formation history of the region surrounding the X-ray source.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the M31PHATSFH database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 19:35:27 EST