Can AGN and galaxy clusters explain the surface brightness fluctuations of the cosmic X-ray background?

Abstract

Fluctuations of the surface brightness of cosmic X-ray background (CXB) carry unique information about faint and low luminosity source populations, which is inaccessible for conventional large-scale structure (LSS) studies based on resolved sources. We used Chandra data of the XBOOTES field ($\sim 9\mathrm{de}{\mathrm{g}}^2$) to conduct the most accurate measurement to date of the power spectrum of fluctuations of the unresolved CXB on the angular scales of $\sim 3$arcsec $-$ $\sim 17$arcmin. We find that at sub-arcmin angular scales, the power spectrum is consistent with the AGN shot noise, without much need for any significant contribution from their one-halo term. This is consistent with the theoretical expectation that low-luminosity AGN reside alone in their dark matter halos. However, at larger angular scales we detect a significant LSS signal above the AGN shot noise. Its power spectrum, obtained after subtracting the AGN shot noise, follows a power law with the slope of $-0.8\pm 0.1$ and its amplitude is much larger than what can be plausibly explained by the two-halo term of AGN. We demonstrate that the detected LSS signal is produced by unresolved clusters and groups of galaxies. For the flux limit of the XBOOTES survey, their flux-weighted mean redshift equals $⟨z⟩\sim 0.3$, and the mean temperature of their intracluster medium (ICM), $⟨T⟩\approx 1.4$ keV, corresponds to the mass of $M_{500}\sim 10^{13.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. The power spectrum of CXB fluctuations carries information about the redshift distribution of these objects and the spatial structure of their ICM on the linear scales of up to $\sim$Mpc, i.e. of the order of the virial radius.

arXiv comment25 pages, 20 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

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