Constraints on turbulent pressure in the X-ray haloes of giant elliptical galaxies from resonant scattering

The dense cores of X-ray emitting gaseous haloes of large elliptical galaxies with temperatures   kT ≲ 0.8  keV  show two prominent Fe  xvii emission features, which provide a sensitive diagnostic tool to measure the effects of resonant scattering. We present here high-resolution spectra of five bright nearby elliptical galaxies, obtained with the reflection grating spectrometers (RGS) on the XMM-Newton satellite. The spectra for the cores of four of the galaxies show the Fe  xvii line at 15.01 Å being suppressed by resonant scattering. The data for NGC 4636 in particular allow the effects of resonant scattering to be studied in detail and to prove that the 15.01 Å line is suppressed only in the dense core and not in the surrounding regions. Using deprojected density and temperature profiles for this galaxy obtained with the Chandra satellite, we model the radial intensity profiles of the strongest resonance lines, accounting for the effects of resonant scattering, for different values of the characteristic turbulent velocity. Comparing the model to the data, we find that the isotropic turbulent velocities on spatial scales smaller than ≈1 kpc are less than 100 km s⁻¹ and the turbulent pressure support in the galaxy core is smaller than 5 per cent of the thermal pressure at the 90 per cent confidence level, and less than 20 per cent at 95 per cent confidence. Neglecting the effects of resonant scattering in spectral fitting of the inner 2 kpc core of NGC 4636 will lead to underestimates of the chemical abundances of Fe and O by ∼10–20 per cent.     

The circumnuclear X-ray reflectors in NGC 1068 and the Circinus galaxy

The ASCA and BeppoSAX spectra of the Circinus galaxy and NGC 1068 are analysed and compared with photoionization models based on cloudy . In the case of Circinus, a single, mildly ionized reflector can account for the line spectrum, while in NGC 1068 at least three different reflectors (with different ionization states) are needed. We suggest that the reflector in Circinus and the low ionized one in NGC 1068 are the inner and visible part of the material responsible for the X-ray absorption. With this assumption, we estimate for the inner radius of the absorber a value of 0.2 pc for Circinus and of a few parsecs for NGC 1068.     

ASCA spectroscopy of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240: X-ray emission from a starburst and a buried active nucleus

We present an X-ray spectroscopic study of the prototype far-infrared galaxy NGC 6240 from ASCA . The soft X-ray spectrum (below 2 keV) shows clear signatures of thermal emission well described by a multitemperature optically thin plasma, which probably originates in a powerful starburst. Strong hard X-ray emission is also detected with ASCA and its spectrum above 3 keV is extremely flat with a prominent iron K line complex, very similar to that seen in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 but about an order of magnitude more luminous ( L _3−10keV ≈ 1.4 × 10⁴² erg s⁻¹). The hard X-ray spectrum indicates that only reflected X-rays of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) buried in a heavy obscuration ( N _H > 2 × 10²⁴ cm⁻²) are visible. This is evidence for an AGN in NGC 6240, emitting possibly at a quasar luminosity (∼ 10⁴⁵ erg s⁻¹), and suggests its significant contribution to the far-infrared luminosity.     

The X-ray spectrum and variability of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 7172

We present evidence of flux variability, on both short (hours) and long (months) time-scales, of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 7172. These results are based on the ASCA observation of NGC 7172 performed in 1996 May. The source was detected at a rather low flux level, about 3 times fainter than its usual state (including 1 yr before, when it was also observed by ASCA ).   The source also varied by about 30 per cent during the observation, confirming the presence of a type 1 nucleus in its centre. However, its spectrum appears to be flatter than the typical Seyfert 1 spectrum (in agreement with findings on other Seyfert 2s), posing problems for the unification model unless complex absorption is invoked.     

The formerly X-ray reflection-dominated Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300

In this paper, a BeppoSAX observation of the bright Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6300 is presented. The rapidly variable emission from the active nucleus is seen through a Compton-thin     absorber. A Compton-reflection component with an unusually high reflection fraction     , and the comparison with a reflection-dominated spectrum measured by RXTE two and half years earlier suggest that NGC 6300 belongs to the class of 'transient' active galactic nucleus, undergoing long and repeated periods of low activity. The spectral transition provides support to the idea that Compton-thick and Compton-thin X-ray absorbers in Seyfert 2 galaxies are decoupled, the former being most likely associated with the 'torus', whereas the latter is probably located at much larger distances.     

Chandra imaging of the complex X-ray core of the Perseus cluster

We report subarcsec-resolution X-ray imaging of the core of the Perseus cluster around the galaxy NGC 1275 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory . The ROSAT -discovered holes associated with the radio lobes have X-ray bright rims which are cooler than the surrounding gas and not a result of shocks. The holes themselves may contain some hotter gas. We map strong photoelectric absorption across the northern lobe and rim owing to a small infalling irregular galaxy, known as the high-velocity system. Two outer holes, one of which was previously known, are identified with recently found spurs of low-frequency radio emission. The spiral appearance of the X-ray cooler gas and the outer optical parts of NGC 1275 may be due to angular momentum in the cooling flow.     

X-ray colour maps of the cores of galaxy clusters

We present an analysis of X-ray colour maps of the cores of clusters of galaxies, formed from the ratios of counts in different X-ray bands. Our technique groups pixels lying between contours in an adaptively smoothed image of a cluster. We select the contour levels to minimize the uncertainties in the colour ratios, whilst preserving the structure of the object. We extend the work of Allen & Fabian by investigating the spatial distributions of cooling gas and absorbing material in cluster cores. Their sample is almost doubled: we analyse archive ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) data for 33 clusters from the sample of the 55 brightest X-ray clusters in the sky. Many of our clusters contain strong cooling flows. We present colour maps of a sample of the clusters, in addition to adaptively smoothed images in different bands. Most of the cooling flow clusters display little substructure, unlike several of the non-cooling-flow clusters.
We fitted an isothermal plasma model with galactic absorption and constant metallicity to the mid-over-high energy colours in our clusters. Those clusters with known strong cooling flows have inner contours which fit a significantly lower temperature than the outer contours. Clusters in the sample without strong cooling flows show no significant temperature variation. The inclusion of a metallicity gradient alone was not sufficient to explain the observations. A cooling flow component plus a constant temperature phase did account for the colour profiles in clusters with known strong cooling flow components. We also had to increase the levels of absorbing material to fit the low-over-high colours at the cluster centres. Our results provide more evidence that cooling flows accumulate absorbing material. No evidence for increased absorption was found for the non-cooling-flow clusters.