THE IMPACT OF ACCURATE EXTINCTION MEASUREMENTS FOR X-RAY SPECTRAL MODELS

Interstellar extinction includes both absorption and scattering of photons from interstellar gas and dust grains, and it has the effect of altering a source's spectrum and its total observed intensity. However, while multiple absorption models exist, there are no useful scattering models in sta...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Smith, Randall K. (Author), Valencic, Lynne A. (Author), Corrales, Lia (Contributor)
Other Authors: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing, 2016-05-25T00:27:12Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Smith, Randall K.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Corrales, Lia  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Valencic, Lynne A.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Corrales, Lia  |e author 
245 0 0 |a THE IMPACT OF ACCURATE EXTINCTION MEASUREMENTS FOR X-RAY SPECTRAL MODELS 
260 |b IOP Publishing,   |c 2016-05-25T00:27:12Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102672 
520 |a Interstellar extinction includes both absorption and scattering of photons from interstellar gas and dust grains, and it has the effect of altering a source's spectrum and its total observed intensity. However, while multiple absorption models exist, there are no useful scattering models in standard X-ray spectrum fitting tools, such as XSPEC. Nonetheless, X-ray halos, created by scattering from dust grains, are detected around even moderately absorbed sources, and the impact on an observed source spectrum can be significant, if modest, compared to direct absorption. By convolving the scattering cross section with dust models, we have created a spectral model as a function of energy, type of dust, and extraction region that can be used with models of direct absorption. This will ensure that the extinction model is consistent and enable direct connections to be made between a source's X-ray spectral fits and its UV/optical extinction. 
520 |a Chandra X-ray Observatory (U.S.) (Grant TM4-15002X) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t The Astrophysical Journal