X-ray Halos of Early-Type Galaxies with AGN Feedback and Accretion from a Circumgalactic Medium: models and observations

The knowledge of the X-ray properties of the hot gas halos of early-type galaxies has significantly advanced in the past years, for large and homogeneously investigated samples. We compare these results with the X-ray properties of an exploratory set of gas evolution models in realistic early-type galaxies, produced with our high-resolution 2D hydrodynamical code MACER that includes AGN feedback and accretion from a circumgalactic medium. The model X-ray emission and absorption are integrated along the line of sight, to obtain maps of the surface brightness Sigma_X and temperature Tx. The X-ray diagnostics considered are the luminosity and average temperature for the whole galaxy (Lx and <Tx>) and within 5 optical effective radii (Lx5 and <Tx5>), and the circularized profiles Sigma_X® and Tx®. The values for Lx, Lx5, <Tx>, and <Tx5> compare very well with those observed. The Sigma_X® and Tx® also present qualitative similarities with those of the representative galaxy NGC5129, and of ETGs with the most commonly observed shape for Tx®: Sigma_X® matches the observed profile over many optical effective radii Re, and Tx® reproduces the characteristic bump that peaks at R=(1 - 3)Re. Inside the peak position, Tx® declines towards the center, but the explored models are systematically hotter by ~30%; possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed. Interestingly, Sigma_X® and Tx® as large as observed outside of R~Re are reproduced only with significant accretion from a circumgalactic medium, highlighting its importance.