Possibility of a 44 Å Line Component in the Diffuse Cosmic X-ray Flux

Abstract

SEVERAL investigators have measured the diffuse cosmic X-ray intensity in the 1/4 keV band by means of rocket-borne gas proportional counters1–5. Intensities derived from these measurements have used the assumption that the incident X-rays are continuously distributed in energy over the band-passes of the detectors, and the results disagree. We have therefore reinterpreted existing data, giving consideration to the possibility of line emission (possibly carbon Kα) being superposed on the cosmic X-ray continuum. With this generalization, the discordance of the reported fluxes is substantially reduced. This may be simply an artefact of the existing data, but the possibility that it reflects the existence of a line in the diffuse X-ray background is sufficiently important for us to urge that new data be examined for this possibility as they become available.