The space density and X-ray luminosity function of non-magnetic cataclysmic variables

TL;DR

This study combines two X-ray surveys to estimate the space density and luminosity function of non-magnetic cataclysmic variables, revealing potential undercounting of faint populations and constraining the luminosity distribution.

Contribution

It provides the first combined measurement of the space density and luminosity function of non-magnetic CVs using flux-limited surveys, accounting for statistical uncertainties and biases.

Findings

Estimated space density: 4^{+6}_{-2} imes 10^{-6} pc^{-3}

Luminosity function follows a truncated power law with index -0.80 1

Possible underestimation of faint CV populations by current surveys

Abstract

We combine two complete, X-ray flux-limited surveys, the ROSAT Bright Survey (RBS) and the ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) survey, to measure the space density (\rho) and X-ray luminosity function (\Phi) of non-magnetic CVs. The combined survey has a flux limit of F_X \ga 1.1 \times 10^{-12} erg cm^{-2}s^{-1} over most of its solid angle of just over 2\pi, but is as deep as \simeq 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2}s^{-1} over a small area. The CV sample that we construct from these two surveys contains 20 non-magnetic systems. We carefully include all sources of statistical error in calculating \rho and \Phi by using Monte Carlo simulations; the most important uncertainty proves to be the often large errors in distances estimates. If we assume that the 20 CVs in the combined RBS and NEP survey sample are representative of the intrinsic population, the space density of non-magnetic CVs is 4^{+6}_{-2} \times 10^{-6} pc^{-3}. We discuss the difficulty in measuring \Phi in some detail---in order to account for biases in the measurement, we have to adopt a functional form for \Phi. Assuming that the X-ray luminosity function of non-magnetic CVs is a truncated power law, we constrain the power law index to -0.80 \pm 0.05. It seems likely that the two surveys have failed to detect a large, faint population of short-period CVs, and that the true space density may well be a factor of 2 or 3 larger than what we have measured; this is possible, even if we only allow for undetected CVs to have X-ray luminosities in the narrow range 28.7< log(L_X/erg\,s^{-1})<29.7. However, \rho as high as 2 \times 10^{-4} pc^{-3} would require that the majority of CVs has X-ray luminosities below L_X = 4 \times 10^{28} erg s^{-1} in the 0.5--2.0 keV band.