Probing large scale coherence between Spitzer IR and Chandra X-ray source-subtracted cosmic backgrounds [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1709.02824


We present new measurements of the large scale clustering component of the cross-power spectra of the source-subtracted {\em Spitzer}-IRAC Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) and {\em Chandra}-ACIS Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) surface brightness fluctuations
Our investigation uses data from the {\em Chandra} Deep Field South (CDFS), {\em Hubble} Deep Field North (HDFN), EGS/AEGIS field and UDS/SXDF surveys, comprising 1160 Spitzer hours and $\sim$ 12 Ms of {\em Chandra} data collected over a total area of 0.3 deg$^2$. We report the first ($>$5$\sigma$) detection of a cross-power signal on large angular scales $>\,$20\arcsec between [0.5-2]~keV and the 3.6$\mu$m and 4.5$\mu$m bands, at $\sim$5$\sigma$ and 6.3$\sigma$ significance, respectively. The correlation with harder X-ray bands is marginally significant. Comparing the new observations with existing models for the contribution of the known unmasked source population at $z<$7, we find an excess of about an order of magnitude at 5$\sigma$ confidence. We discuss possible interpretations for the origin of this excess in terms of the contribution from accreting early black holes, including both direct collapse black holes and primordial black holes, as well as from scattering in the interstellar medium and intra-halo light.

Read this paper on arXiv…

N. Cappelluti, R. Arendt, A. Kashlinsky, et. al.
Tue, 12 Sep 17
48/71

Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ Letters