The X-ray Properties of the Nearby Star-Forming Galaxy IC 342: The XMM-Newton View

We present the X-ray properties of IC342 using XMM-Newton. Thirty-five sources are detected coincident with the disk of IC342 (more than tripling the number known), of which ~31 are likely to be intrinsic to IC342. This population shows a range of spectral properties and has an X-ray luminosity function slope and infrared luminosity comparable to that of starburst galaxies such as M82 and the Antennae, while its relative lack of extended X-ray emission is similar to the properties of quiescent spirals. We do detect long-term variability between this observation and the 1991 ROSAT and 1993/2000 ASCA observations for five sources. Notably, the second most luminous source IC342 X-2 is is found to be in its the lowest luminosity state observed for X-2 to date, although the slope of the spectrum is intermediate between the previously observed low/hard and high/soft states. IC342 X-1, on the other hand, is found to be in an identical state to that observed in 2000 with ASCA. Assuming X-1 is in an anomalous very high (VH) state, then either (1) X-1 has remained in this state between 2000 and 2002, and is therefore the longest duration VH-state binary ever observed, or (2) it was simply caught in a VH state by chance in both the 2000 ASCA and 2002 XMM-Newton observations. We have also confirmed the ROSAT HRI result that the nucleus of IC342 is made up of both point-like and extended emission. The relative fluxes of the two spectral components suggest that the nucleus is complex, with a soft extended component contributing approximately half of the total luminosity. (Abridged)