An Analysis of the Stellar Content of the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey Using Age-Homogeneous X-Ray Luminosity Functions

Abstract

We present an analysis of the stellar component of the Einstein Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) in which we compare the observed source counts in the EMSS with a model based on age-homogeneous X-ray luminosity functions, computed from samples of stars in the solar neighborhood and in nearby open clusters. We show that the variation of X-ray luminosity with age is a key parameter in determining the number of coronal sources in an X-ray based survey. Additionally, we discuss the importance of properly accounting for the presence of unresolved binaries.