Chandra Spectra of the Soft X-Ray Diffuse Background

We present an exploratory Chandra ACIS-S3 study of the diffuse component of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) in the 0.3-7 keV band for four directions at high Galactic latitudes, with emphasis on details of the ACIS instrumental background modeling. Observations of the dark Moon are used to model the detector background. A comparison of the Moon data and the data obtained with ACIS stowed outside the focal area showed that the dark Moon does not emit significantly in our band. Point sources down to 3 × 10-16 ergs s-1 cm-2 in the 0.5-2 keV band are excluded in our two deepest observations. We estimate the contribution of fainter, undetected sources to be less than 20% of the remaining CXB flux in this band in all four pointings. In the 0.3-1 keV band, the diffuse signal varies strongly from field to field and contributes between 55% and 90% of the total CXB signal. It is dominated by emission lines that can be modeled by a kT = 0.1-0.4 keV plasma. In particular, the two fields located away from bright Galactic features show a prominent line blend at E ≈ 580 eV (O VII+O VIII) and a possible line feature at E ~ 300 eV. The two pointings toward the North Polar Spur exhibit a brighter O blend and additional bright lines at 730-830 eV (Fe XVII). We measure the total 1-2 keV flux of × 10-15 ergs s-1 cm-2 arcmin-2 (mostly resolved) and the 2-7 keV flux of × 10-15 ergs s-1 cm-2 arcmin-2. At E > 2 keV, the diffuse emission is consistent with zero, to an accuracy limited by the short Moon exposure and systematic uncertainties of the S3 background. Assuming Galactic or local origin of the line emission, we put an upper limit of ~3 × 10-15 ergs s-1 cm-2 arcmin-2 on the 0.3-1 keV extragalactic diffuse flux.