PhD Thesis (PDF) - Department of Astronomy - University of Virginia

luminous (MB < −20) elliptical (E6) galaxy 2 . We adopted the 2MASS Point Source
Catalog 3 position of R.A. = 12 h 48 m 35. s 90 and Dec. = −5 ◦ 48 ′ 02. ′′ 6 as the location
of the center of NGC 4697 and the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies
(RC3) values for the optical photometry’s effective radius (reff = 72. ′′ 0), position an-
gle (P A = 70 ◦ , measured from north to east), and ellipticity (e = 0.354), which
assumes a de Vaucouleurs profile (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1992). From these values, we
calculate the optical photometry’s effective semi-major distance (aeff = 89. ′′ 6). This
galaxy lies ∼ 5 Mpc in front of the bulk of the galaxies in the Virgo cluster, and
18. ◦ 7 south of M87, the central galaxy of the Virgo cluster. We also report on the
GC/LMXB connection as determined from a joint observation of the central region
by the Hubble Space Telescope Advance Camera for Surveys (HST-ACS).
In § 5.2, we discuss the observations and data reduction of NGC 4697. The X-ray
image and the detection of X-ray sources are discussed in § 5.3 and § 5.4. In § 5.5,
we discuss the optical counterparts from ground-based and HST observations. We
examine the GC/LMXB connection in detail in § 5.6. The analyses of luminosity,
hardness ratios, and spectra are considered in §§ 5.7–5.9. We concentrate on the
variability of the X-ray sources in § 5.10. Finally, we summarize our conclusions in
§ 5.11. Unless otherwise noted, all errors refer to 1σ confidence intervals, count rates
are in the 0.3–6 keV band, and fluxes and luminosities are in the 0.3–10 keV band.
et al. (2001).
2There is a weak disk; however, it not comparable to those seen in lenticular galaxies (Peletier
et al. 1990).
3See http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/releases/allsky/doc/explsup.html.
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