Upper limit on dimming of cosmological sources by intergalactic grey dust from the soft X-ray background
View/ Open
Author
Dijkstra, Mark
Loeb, Abraham
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15102.xMetadata
Show full item recordCitation
Dijkstra, Mark, and Abraham Loeb. 2009. “Upper Limit on Dimming of Cosmological Sources by Intergalactic Grey Dust from the Soft X-Ray Background.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 397 (4): 1976–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15102.x.Abstract
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) produce a dominant fraction (F(AGN) similar to 80 per cent) of the soft X-ray background (SXB) at photon energies 0.5 < E < 2 keV. If dust pervaded throughout the intergalactic medium, its scattering opacity would have produced diffuse X-ray haloes around AGN. Taking account of known galaxies and galaxy clusters, only a fraction F(halo) less than or similar to 10 per cent of the SXB can be in the form of diffuse X-ray haloes around AGN. We therefore limit the intergalactic opacity to optical/infrared photons from large dust grains, with radii in the range a = 0.2-2.0 mu m, to a level tau(GD) less than or similar to 0.15(F(halo)/10 per cent)(F(AGN)/80 per cent)(-1) to a redshift z similar to 1. Our results are only weakly dependent on the grain size distribution in this size range or the redshift evolution of the intergalactic dust. Stacking X-ray images of AGN can be used to improve our constraints and diminish the importance of dust as a source of systematic uncertainty for future supernova surveys which aim to improve the precision on measuring the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation-of-state.Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41412190
Collections
- FAS Scholarly Articles [18172]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)