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Tracing Small-Scale Fluctuations in the Soft X-ray Background

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

R. Warwick
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
I. Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
R. Willingale
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
K. Kuntz
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
S. Snowden
Affiliation:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

Abstract

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An overlapping set of ROSAT PSPC observations made in a region of very low Galactic foreground column density, has been used to investigate variations in the soft X-ray background on angular scales of 15′ – 5°. In the ¼ keV band there is a clear inverse correlation of the count-rate with the line-of-sight hydrogen column density. However, after correcting for this absorption effect, strong residual fluctuations remain in the data, with an amplitude which is significantly larger than that due to the counting statistics or the confusion of unresolved discrete sources. In contrast a similar analysis for the ¾ and 1.5 keV ROSAT bands shows no evidence for an excess signal. The most likely origin of the ¼ keV fluctuations would seem to be in a patchy distribution of ~ 106 K gas in the Galactic halo.

Type
Part VI Distant Hot Gas, SXRB Fluctuations, Dust, Gamma-rays
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1998

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