CHANDRAOBSERVATIONS OF THE X-RAY POINT SOURCE POPULATION IN NGC 4636

Abstract

We present the X-ray point-source population in the nearby Virgo elliptical galaxy NGC 4636 from three Chandra X-ray observations. These observations, totaling ~193 ks after time filtering, were taken with the Advanced CCD Imaging Camera (ACIS) over a three-year period. Using a wavelet decomposition detection algorithm, we detect 318 individual point sources. For our analysis, we use a subset of 277 detections with ≥ net 10 counts (a limiting luminosity of approximately 1.2 × 1037 erg s–1 in the 0.5-2 keV band, outside the central 15 bright galaxy core). We present a radial distribution of the point sources. Between 15 and 6' from the center, 25% of our sources are likely to be background sources (active galactic nuclei (AGNs)) and 75% are low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) within the galaxy, while at radial distances greater than 6', background sources (AGN) will dominate the point sources. We explore short and long-term variability (over timescales of 1 day to three years) for X-ray point sources in this elliptical galaxy. 54 sources (24%) in the common ACIS fields of view show significant variability between observations. Of these, 37 are detected with at least 10 net counts in only one observation and thus may be transient. In addition, ~10% of the sources in each observation show significant short-term variability; we present an example light curve for a variable bright source. The cumulative luminosity function (LF) for the point sources in NGC 4636 can be represented as a power law of slope α = 1.14 ± 0.03. We do not detect, but estimate an upper limit of ~4.5 × 1037 erg s–1 to the current X-ray luminosity of the historical supernova SN1939A. We find 77 matches between X-ray point sources and globular cluster (GC) candidates found in deep optical images of NGC 4636. In the annulus from 15 to 6' of the galaxy center, 48 of the 129 X-ray point sources (37%) with ≥10 net counts are matched with GC candidates. Since we expect 25% of these sources to be background AGN, the percentage matched with GCs could be as high as 50%. Of these matched sources, we find that ~70% are associated with the redder GC candidates, those that are thought to have near-solar metal abundance. The fraction of GC candidates with an X-ray point source match decreases with decreasing GC luminosity. We do not find a correlation between the X-ray luminosities of the matched point sources and the luminosity or color of the host GC candidates. The LFs of the X-ray point sources matched with GCs and those that are unmatched have similar slopes over 1.8 × 1037 erg s–1 ≤ Lx ≤ 1 × 1038 erg s–1. Finally, we present a color-color diagram based on ratios of X-ray flux rather than source counts, which yields a much tighter source distribution, and shows a large population of sources which are likely LMXBs and a small population of black hole candidates.