paper

Resonant scattering of X-rays by the warm intergalactic medium

arXiv:astro-ph/0002479 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04090.x

Abstract

For the low density filamentary and sheet-like structures in the warm ( to K) IGM predicted by numerical simulations the resonant line scattering of X-ray background (XRB) photons by He and H-like ions of heavy elements can exceed the ``local'' thermal emission by a factor of a few or more. Due to the conservative nature of scattering this resonantly scattered radiation can only be identified if a significant fraction of the XRB is resolved and removed. While the combined spectrum of the resolved sources will contain X-ray absorption features, the residual background will contain corresponding emission features with the same intensity. At the relevant densities and temperatures the lines of He and H-like oxygen at 0.57 and 0.65 keV are most promising. These lines (which have a typical width of 1-2 eV) may contain up to 50% of the total 0.5-1 keV emission of the filament. For a nearby ($z \la 0.1$) filament with a Thomson optical depth of XMM should detect about 200 photons in the OVII line during a s exposure if the metallicity of the gas is as large as observed in galaxy clusters. On average up to a few percent of the soft XRB could be resonantly scattered by this phase of the IGM and resonantly scattered photons should account for a significant fraction of the truly diffuse background at low energies. Close to bright X-ray sources like galaxy clusters or AGN the flux of scattered radiation will be further enhanced. Off-line blazars are the most promising illuminating sources. The scattered emission from AGN may also constrain the duration of the active phase of these objects.

9 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS; replaced with accepted version

References in corpus (1)

Cited by in corpus (14)