X-ray Spectroscopic Evidence of Charge Exchange Emission in the Disk of M51

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy to reveal that charge exchange processes significantly contribute to the diffuse soft X-ray emission in the disk of M51, especially in star-forming regions.

Contribution

It provides the first clear spectroscopic evidence of charge exchange emission in a galaxy disk, highlighting its importance in soft X-ray production.

Findings

Charge exchange accounts for about 50% of the diffuse X-ray emission.

The hot plasma has a temperature of approximately 0.34 keV and near-solar metallicity.

The charge exchange interface area is about five times larger than the geometric disk area.

Abstract

In the disks of spiral galaxies, diffuse soft X-ray emission is known to be strongly correlated with star-forming regions. However, this emission is not simply from a thermal-equilibrium plasma and its origin remains greatly unclear. In this work, we present an X-ray spectroscopic analysis of the emission from the northern hot spot; a region with enhanced star-formation off the nucleus of M51. Based on the high spectral resolution data from XMM-Newton/RGS observations, we unambiguously detect a high $G$ ratio ($3.2^{+6.9}_{-1.5}$) of the OVII He$\alpha$ triplet. This high $G$ ratio is also spatially confirmed by oxygen emission-line maps from the same data. A physical model consisting of a thermal plasma and its charge exchange (CX) with neutral cool gas gives a good explanation for the $G$ ratio and the entire RGS spectra. This model also gives a satisfactory characterization of the complementary Chandra/ACIS-S data, which enables a direct imaging of the diffuse emission, tracing the hot plasma across the galaxy. The hot plasma has a similar characteristic temperature of ~0.34 keV and an approximately solar metallicity. The CX contributes ~50% to the diffuse emission in the 0.4-1.8 keV band, suggesting an effective hot/cool gas interface area about five times the geometric area of the M51 disk. Therefore, the CX appears to play a major role in the soft X-ray production and may be used as a powerful tool to probe the interface astrophysics, important for studying galactic ecosystems.