INTEGRAL hard X-ray spectra of the cosmic X-ray background and Galactic ridge emission

TL;DR

This study derives the spectra of the cosmic X-ray background and Galactic ridge emission in the 20-200 keV range using INTEGRAL data, confirming previous results and providing new insights into their spectral shapes and contributions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modeling approach that does not fix spectral shapes but derives them from spatial distribution and modulation data, improving spectral estimates.

Findings

CXB spectrum aligns with HEAO-1 results

GRXE spectrum shows a minimum around 80 keV

Estimated average white dwarf mass is ~0.6 solar masses

Abstract

We derive the spectra of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) and of the Galactic ridge X-ray emission (GRXE) in the ~20-200 keV range from the data of the IBIS instrument aboard the INTEGRAL satellite obtained during the four dedicated Earth-occultation observations of early 2006. We analyse the modulation of the IBIS/ISGRI detector counts induced by the passage of the Earth through the field of view of the instrument. Unlike previous studies, we do not fix the spectral shape of the various contributions, but model instead their spatial distribution and derive for each of them the expected modulation of the detector counts. The spectra of the diffuse emission components are obtained by fitting the normalizations of the model lightcurves to the observed modulation in different energy bins. The obtained CXB spectrum is consistent with the historic HEAO-1 results and falls slightly below the spectrum derived with Swift/BAT. A 10% higher normalization of the CXB cannot be completely excluded, but it would imply an unrealistically high albedo of the Earth. The derived spectrum of the GRXE confirms the presence of a minimum around 80 keV with improved statistics and yields an estimate of ~0.6 M_Sun for the average mass of white dwarfs in the Galaxy. The analysis also provides updated normalizations for the spectra of the Earth's albedo and the cosmic-ray induced atmospheric emission.