Diffuse X-ray emission from star forming galaxies

TL;DR

This study combines simulations and analytical models to explain how diffuse X-ray emission in star forming galaxies scales with star formation rate, highlighting the role of galactic outflows and the circumgalactic medium.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking mass loading of outflows to X-ray luminosity scaling, accounting for observed relations and scatter in galaxy emissions.

Findings

X-ray luminosity scales as SFR^2 for high SFRs.

Hot circumgalactic medium explains low SFR X-ray behavior.

Galaxies with low SFR and high X-ray luminosity are prime CGM detection targets.

Abstract

We study the diffuse X-ray luminosity ($L_X$) of star forming galaxies using 2-D axisymmetric hydrodynamical simulations and analytical considerations of supernovae (SNe) driven galactic outflows. We find that the mass loading of the outflows, a crucial parameter for determining the X-ray luminosity, is constrained by the availability of gas in the central star forming region, and a competition between cooling and expansion. We show that the allowed range of the mass loading factor can explain the observed scaling of $L_X$ with star formation rate (SFR) as $L_X \propto$ SFR$^2$ for SFR $\gtrsim 1$ M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$, and a flatter relation at low SFRs. We also show that the emission from the hot circumgalactic medium (CGM) in the halo of massive galaxies can explain the sub-linear behaviour of the $L_X-$SFR relation as well as a large scatter in the diffuse X-ray emission for low SFRs ($\lesssim$ few M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$). Our results point out that galaxies with small SFRs and large diffuse X-ray luminosities are excellent candidates for detection of the elusive CGM.