1998/10/14 by I. Lehmann, Lehmann, I., G. Hasinger +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9810214
4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in 'Highlights in X-ray Astronomy', symposium held in honour of J. Truempers 65th birthday
arxiv created 1998/10/14 · openalex publication_date 1998/10/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of galaxies is dominated by AGN (classified by their optical spectra) above Lx=10**42 erg/s, below this value by normal galaxies. The X-ray flux of AGN at low X-ray luminosity therefore contains contributions from stellar processes (winds, supernova explosions etc.). Until now it is not clear which fraction of the observed X-ray flux has to be associated to the underlying stellar emission. We started to investigate a complete luminosity-limited sample of AGN and galaxies with log Lx < 42.5 to discriminate between the nuclear and galaxy flux. Using the ROSAT HRI data we calculated the radial wobble-corrected profiles of the sources which were compared to a new HRI point spread function (PSF) template derived from 21 X-ray bright stars. The majority of the low-luminosiy AGN shows evidence for a significant fraction of extended X-ray emission.