English

Hard X-ray emissions from Cassiopeia A observed by INTEGRAL

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2016-07-13 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

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 44^{44}Ti line emissions at 68 and 78 keV are confirmed by our observations with a mean flux of (2.2±0.4)×105\sim (2.2\pm 0.4)\times 10^{-5} ph cm2^{-2} s1^{-1}, corresponding to a 44^{44}Ti yield in Cas A of (1.3±0.4)×104(1.3\pm 0.4)\times 10^{-4} \ms. The continuum emission from 3 -- 500 keV can be fitted with a thermal bremsstrahlung of kT0.79±0.08kT\sim 0.79\pm 0.08 keV plus a power-law model of Γ3.13±0.03\Gamma \sim 3.13\pm 0.03. 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 s1^{-1}. 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 0.1c\sim 0.1c and opening angle of 10\sim10^\circ can account for the 100-keV emission, consistent with the "jet" observed in Cas A.

Keywords

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

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