2011ApJ...733....5Z

X-ray studies of normal late-type galaxies have shown that non-nuclear X-ray emission is typically dominated by X-ray binaries and provides a useful measure of star formation activity. We have modeled the X-ray evolution of late-type galaxies over the ∼14 Gyr of cosmic history, with an evolutionary population synthesis code developed by Hurley et al. Our calculations reveal a decrease in the X-ray luminosity-to-mass ratio L_X/M with time, in agreement with observations. We show that this decrease is a natural consequence of stellar and binary evolution and the mass accumulating process in galaxies. The X-ray-to-optical luminosity ratio L_X/L_B is found to be fairly constant (around ∼10³⁰ erg/s L^–1_B,☉) and insensitive to the star formation history in the galaxies. The nearly constant value of L_X/L_B is in conflict with the observed increase in L_X/L_B from z = 0 to 1.4. The discrepancy may be caused by intense obscured star formation activity that leads to a nonlinear relationship between X-ray and B-band emission.