The X-ray Spectrum and Light Curve of Supernova 1995N
Abstract
We report on multi-epoch X-ray observations of the Type IIn (narrow emission line) supernova SN 1995N with the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. The January 1998 ASCA X-ray spectrum is well fitted by a thermal bremsstrahlung (kT~10 keV, N_H~6e20 cm^-2) or power-law (alpha~1.7, N_H~1e21 cm^-2) model. The X-ray light curve shows evidence for significant flux evolution between August 1996 and January 1998: the count rate from the source decreased by 30% between our August 1996 and August 1997 ROSAT observations, and the X-ray luminosity most likely increased by a factor of ~2 between our August 1997 ROSAT and January 1998 ASCA observations, although evolution of the spectral shape over this interval is not ruled out. The high X-ray luminosity, L_X~1e41 erg/sec, places SN 1995N in a small group of Type IIn supernovae with strong circumstellar interaction, and the evolving X-ray luminosity suggests that the circumstellar medium is distributed inhomogeneously.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0008410,
title = {The X-ray Spectrum and Light Curve of Supernova 1995N},
author = {D. W. Fox and W. H. G. Lewin and A. Fabian and K. Iwasawa and R. Terlevich and H. U. Zimmermann and B. Aschenbach and K. Weiler and S. Van Dyk and R. Chevalier and R. Rutledge and H. Inoue and S. Uno},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0008410},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
MNRAS accepted. 6 pages, 2 figures; uses mn.sty and psfig