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Register a new userUpper limits on the rapid cooling of the Central Compact Object in Cas A
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The Central Compact Object (CCO) in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant is most likely a very young ($approx 300$ yr) neutron star. If a previously reported decrease of its surface temperature by 4% in 10 years could be confirmed, it would have profound theoretical implications for neutron star physics. However, the temperature decrease was inferred from Chandra ACIS data affected by instrumental effects which could cause time-dependent spectral distortions. Employing a different instrument setup which minimizes spectral distortions, our 2006 and 2012 Chandra spectra of the CCO did not show a statistically significant temperature decrease. Here, we present additional observations from 2015 taken in the same instrument mode. During the time span of 8.5 years, we detect no significant temperature decrease, using either carbon or hydrogen atmosphere models in the X-ray spectral fits. Our conservative $3sigma$ upper limits correspond to $<3.3$% and $<2.4$% temperature decrease in 10 years for carbon atmosphere model fits with varying or constant values of the absorbing hydrogen column density, respectively. The recently revised model for the ACIS filter contaminant has a strong effect on the fit results, reducing the significance of the previously reported temperature and flux changes. We expect that a further improved contaminant model and longer time coverage can significantly lower the upper limits in the future.
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To examine the previously claimed fast cooling of the Central Compact Object (CCO) in the Cas A supernova remnant (SNR), we analyzed two Chandra observations of this CCO, taken in a setup minimizing instrumental spectral distortions. We fit the two CCO X-ray spectra from 2006 and 2012 with hydrogen and carbon neutron star atmosphere models. The temperature and flux changes in the 5.5 years between the two epochs depend on the adopted constraints on the fitting parameters and the uncertainties of the effective area calibrations. If we allow a change of the equivalent emitting region size, R_Em, the effective temperature remains essentially the same. If R_Em is held constant, the best-fit temperature change is negative, but its statistical significance ranges from 0.8sigma to 2.5sigma, depending on the model. If we assume that the optical depth of the ACIS filter contaminant in 2012 was +/-10% different from its default calibration value, the significance of the temperature drop becomes 0.8sigma to 3.1sigma, for the carbon atmospheres with constant R_Em. Thus, we do not see a statistically significant temperature drop in our data, but the involved uncertainties are too large to firmly exclude the previously reported fast cooling. Our analysis indicate a decrease of 4%-6% (1.9-2.9sigma significance) for the absorbed flux in the energy range 0.6-6keV between 2006 and 2012, most prominent in the 1.4-1.8 keV energy range. It could be caused by unaccounted changes of the detector response or contributions from unresolved SNR material along the line of sight to the CCO.
We present analysis of multiple Chandra and XMM-Newton spectra, separated by 9-19 years, of four of the youngest central compact objects (CCOs) with ages < 2500 yr: CXOU J232327.9+584842 (Cassiopeia A), CXOU J160103.1-513353 (G330.2+1.0), 1WGA J1713.4-3949 (G347.3-0.5), and XMMU J172054.5-372652 (G350.1-0.3). By fitting these spectra with thermal models, we attempt to constrain each CCOs long-term cooling rate, composition, and magnetic field. For the CCO in Cassiopeia A, 14 measurements over 19 years indicate a decreasing temperature at a ten-year rate of 2.2+/-0.2 or 2.8+/-0.3 percent (1sigma error) for a constant or changing X-ray absorption, respectively. We obtain cooling rate upper limits of 17 percent for CXOU J160103.1-513353 and 6 percent for XMMU J172054.5-372652. For the oldest CCO, 1WGA J1713.4-3949, its temperature seems to have increased by 4+/-2 percent over a ten year period. Assuming each CCOs preferred distance and an emission area that is a large fraction of the total stellar surface, a non-magnetic carbon atmosphere spectrum is a good fit to spectra of all four CCOs. If distances are larger and emission areas are somewhat smaller, then equally good spectral fits are obtained using a hydrogen atmosphere with B <= 7x10^10 G or B >= 10^12 G for CXOU J160103.1-513353, B <= 10^10 G or B >= 10^12 G for XMMU J172054.5-372652, and non-magnetic hydrogen atmosphere for 1WGA J1713.4-3949. In a unified picture of CCO evolution, our results suggest most CCOs, and hence a sizable fraction of young neutron stars, have a surface magnetic field that is low early in their life but builds up over several thousand years.
We have analyzed the archival Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of the compact feature in the Small Magellanic Cloud supernova remnant (SNR) 1E 0102.2-7219 which has recently been suggested to be the Central Compact Object remaining after the supernova explosion. In our analysis, we have used appropriate, time-dependent responses for each of the archival observations, modeled the background instead of subtracting it, and have fit unbinned spectra to preserve the maximal spectral information. The spectrum of this feature is similar to the spectrum of the surrounding regions which have significantly enhanced abundances of O, Ne, & Mg. We find that the previously suggested blackbody model is inconsistent with the data as Monte Carlo simulations indicate that more than 99% of the simulated data sets have a test statistic value lower than that of the data. The spectrum is described adequately by a non-equilibrium ionization thermal model with two classes of models that fit the data equally well. One class of models has a temperature of $kTsim0.79$ keV, an ionization timescale of $sim3times10^{11},mathrm{cm}^{-3}mathrm{s}$, and marginal evidence for enhanced abundances of O and Ne and the other has a temperature of $kTsim0.91$ keV, an ionization timescale of $sim7times10^{10},mathrm{cm}^{-3}mathrm{s}$, and abundances consistent with local interstellar medium values. We also performed an image analysis and find that the spatial distribution of the counts is not consistent with that of a point source. The hypothesis of a point source distribution can be rejected at the 99.9% confidence level. Therefore this compact feature is most likely a knot of O and Ne rich ejecta associated with the reverse shock.
Since its discovery as a pulsar in 2000, the central compact object (CCO) 1E 1207.4-5209 in the supernova remnant PKS 1209-51/52 had been a stable 0.424 s rotator with an extremely small spin-down rate and weak (Bs ~ 9E10 G) surface dipole magnetic field. In 2016 we observed a glitch from 1E 1207.4-5209 of at least Delta f/f = (2.8+/-0.4)E-9, which is typical in size for the general pulsar population. However, glitch activity is closely correlated with spin-down rate fdot, and pulsars with fdot as small as that of 1E 1207.4-5209 are never seen to glitch. Unlike in glitches of ordinary pulsars, there may have been a large increase in fdot as well. The thermal X-ray spectrum of 1E 1207.4-5209, with its unique cyclotron absorption lines that measure the surface magnetic field strength, did not show any measurable change after the glitch, which rules out a major disruption in the dipole field as a cause or result of the glitch. A leading theory of the origin and evolution of CCOs, involving prompt burial of the magnetic field by fall-back of supernova ejecta, might hold the explanation for the glitch.
The 6.67 hr periodicity and the variable X-ray flux of the central compact object (CCO) at the center of the SNR RCW 103, named 1E 161348-5055, have been always difficult to interpret within the standard scenarios of an isolated neutron star or a binary system. On 2016 June 22, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) onboard Swift detected a magnetar-like short X-ray burst from the direction of 1E 161348-5055, also coincident with a large long-term X-ray outburst. Here we report on Chandra, NuSTAR, and Swift (BAT and XRT) observations of this peculiar source during its 2016 outburst peak. In particular, we study the properties of this magnetar-like burst, we discover a hard X-ray tail in the CCO spectrum during outburst, and we study its long-term outburst history (from 1999 to July 2016). We find the emission properties of 1E 161348-5055 consistent with it being a magnetar. However in this scenario, the 6.67 hr periodicity can only be interpreted as the rotation period of this strongly magnetized neutron star, which therefore represents the slowest pulsar ever detected, by orders of magnitude. We briefly discuss the viable slow-down scenarios, favoring a picture involving a period of fall-back accretion after the supernova explosion, similarly to what is invoked (although in a different regime) to explain the anti-magnetar scenario for other CCOs.
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