Hard X-ray emissions from Cassiopeia A observed by INTEGRAL
Abstract
Cassiopeia A (Cas A) as the nearby young remnant of a core-collapse supernova is the best candidate for astrophysical studies in supernova explosion and its environment. We studied hard X-ray emissions from Cas A using the ten-year data of INTEGRAL observations, and first detected non-thermal continuum emission from the source up to 220 keV. The Ti line emissions at 68 and 78 keV are confirmed by our observations with a mean flux of ph cm s, corresponding to a Ti yield in Cas A of \ms. The continuum emission from 3 -- 500 keV can be fitted with a thermal bremsstrahlung of keV plus a power-law model of . The non-thermal emission from Cas A is well fitted with a power-law model without a cutoff up to 220 keV. This radiation characteristic is inconsistent with the diffusive shock acceleration models with the remnant shock velocity of only 5000km s. The central compact object in Cas A cannot contribute to the emission above 80 keV significantly. Some possible physical origins of the non-thermal emission above 80 keV from the remnant shock are discussed. We deduce that the asymmetrical supernova explosion scenario of Cas A is a promising scenario to produce high energy synchrotron radiation photons, where a part of ejecta with the velocity of and opening angle of can account for the 100-keV emission, consistent with the "jet" observed in Cas A.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1605.00360,
title = {Hard X-ray emissions from Cassiopeia A observed by INTEGRAL},
author = {Wei Wang and Zhuo Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.00360},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
20 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; accepted for the publication in ApJ