Extragalactic X-Ray Sources and Their Contribution to the Diffuse Background: Invited Paper

Abstract

We present estimates of the integrated contribution of extragalactic sources to the diffuse X-ray background in the 2–10 keV energy interval. It appears that classes of objects already detected as X-ray sources easily account for at least 10% of the background. Quasistellar objects, and possibly Seyfert and radio galaxies might contribute a larger fraction of the background intensity.We also suggest that several of the unidentified X-ray sources in the UHURU catalogue at high galactic latitudes may be bright QSO's as yet unknown. The detection of a larger number of QSO's in the X-ray band may allow a decisive test for the cosmological interpretation of the redshifts of QSO's.