ROSAT Observations of Symbiotic Stars

Abstract

The German X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT (launched 1990 June 1) performed an all-sky survey (from 1990 Jul 30 till 1991 Jan 26) with the Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (2 deg FoV, .1–2.4 keV) covering 96% of the sky. Analysis of bright X-ray sources suggests PSPC positions can be accurately determined to within 30 arcsec, and 1‥2 arcmin for soft weak ones. We have examined the survey data for detections from among a list of 189 symbiotic and symbiotic-like objects compiled by Vaidis (1988) with own extensions, chosen for completeness. For 178 objects, all-sky data was available. Standard Analysis Software System (SASS) and EXtended Standard Analysis Software packages (EXSAS) both use a three-step approach to detect sources. After quality screening, a sliding-window algorithm (LD) locates bright sources. These are excluded in the 2D-spline interpolated smoothed background map. A second sliding window MD runs on the background subtracted event files. All possible sources were then tested by maximum likelihood in the background-subtracted, exposure-corrected image. If LD, MD, or ML did not detected a source at the optical position, an upper limit ML program tried to find enhanced emission. For EXSAS, photon event files contain all photons within 20 arcmin radius around a source. Cut radii, background determination, and other parameters can be iteratively improved.