A Chandra perspective on galaxy-wide X-ray binary emission and its correlation with star formation rate and stellar mass: New results from luminous infrared galaxies

We present new Chandra observations that complete a sample of seventeen (17) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) with D < 60 Mpc and low Galactic column densities of N_H ≲ 5× 10²⁰ cm ^-2. The LIRGs in our sample have total infrared (8-1000 μm) luminosities in the range of LIr ≈ (1-8) × 10¹¹ L _⊙. The high-resolution imaging and X-ray spectral information from our Chandra observations allow us to measure separately X-ray contributions from active galactic nuclei and normal galaxy processes (e.g., X-ray binaries and hot gas). We utilized total infrared plus UV luminosities to estimate star formation rates (SFRs) and K-band luminosities and optical colors to estimate stellar masses (M^*) for the sample. Under the assumption that the galaxy-wide 2-10 keV luminosity (L_HX) traces the combined emission from high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) and low-mass X-ray binaries, and that the power output from these components is linearly correlated with SFR and M^*, respectively, we constrain the relation L_hx ^gal= αM^* + βSFR. To achieve this, we construct a Chandra-based data set composed of our new LIRG sample combined with additional samples of less actively star-forming normal galaxies and more powerful LIRGs and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) from the literature. Using these data, we measure best-fit values of α = (9.05 ± 0.37) × 10²⁸ erg s^-1 M_⊙^-1 and β = (1.62 ± 0.22) × 10³⁹ erg s^-1 (M ^⊙ yr^-1)^-1. This scaling provides a more physically meaningful estimate of L^gal_HX, with ≈0.1-0.2 dex less scatter, than a direct linear scaling with SFR. Our results suggest that HMXBs dominate the galaxy-wide X-ray emission for galaxies with SFR/M ^* ≳ 5.9 × 10^-11 yr^-1, a factor of ≈2.9 times lower than previous estimates. We find that several of the most powerful LIRGs and ULIRGs, with SFR/M^* ≳ 10 ^-9yr^-1, appear to be X-ray underluminous with respect to our best-fit relation. We argue that these galaxies are likely to contain X-ray binaries residing in compact star-forming regions that are buried under thick galactic columns large enough to attenuate emission in the 2-10 keV band (N ^H ≳ 10²³ cm^-2).