Comparing X-ray emission from Ultraviolet-Luminous Galaxies and Lyman Break Galaxies
Ann Hornschemeier (NASA GSFC) , Andrew Ptak (JHU), Timothy Heckman (JHU), John Grimes (JHU), Samir Salim (NOAO), John Sheets (Boston Univ.), David Strickland (JHU)
We discuss X-ray constraints on GALEX-selected Ultraviolet-Luminous Galaxies (UVLGs). An interesting subset of these UVLGs appear to be analogs to the distant (3 < z < 4) Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs). The 2-10 keV X-ray emission of LBGs appear to be broadly similar to that of galaxies in the local Universe, possibly indicating similarity in the production of accreting binaries over large evolutionary timescales in the Universe. Given the very large distances to the LBGs, we have elected to use the the UVLGs as possible local-Universe comparison sample. This technique is showing promise; we have detected luminous X-ray emission from one UVLG that permits basic X-ray spectroscopic analysis, and have direct X-ray constraints on a total of 6 UVLGs (including two previously studied by Chandra). The luminous X-ray emitting galaxy is perhaps very interesting as it demonstrates a lack of emission from hot gas even though the inferred star formation rate is very high.