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Register a new userChandra View of the Warm-Hot IGM toward 1ES 1553+113: Absorption Line Detections and Identifications (Paper I)
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F. Nicastro
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We present the first results from our pilot 500 ks Chandra-LETG Large Program observation of the soft X-ray brightest source in the z>=0.4 sky, the blazar 1ES 1553+113, aimed to secure the first uncontroversial detections of the missing baryons in the X-rays. We identify a total of 11 possible absorption lines, with single-line statistical significances between 2.2-4.1sigma. Six of these lines are detected at high single-line statistical significance (3.6 <= sigma <= 4.1), while the remaining five are regarded as marginal detections in association with either other X-ray lines detected at higher significance and/or Far-Ultraviolet (FUV) signposts. In particular, five of these possible intervening absorption lines, are identified as CV and CVI Kalpha absorbers belonging to three WHIM systems at z_X = 0.312, z_X = 0.237 and <z_X> = 0.133, which also produce broad HI (and OVI for the z_X = 0.312 system) absorption in the FUV. For two of these systems (z_X = 0.312 and 0.237), the Chandra X-ray data led the a-posteriori discovery of physically consistent broad HI associations in the FUV, so confirming the power of the X-ray-FUV synergy for WHIM studies. The true statistical significances of these three X-ray absorption systems, after properly accounting for the number of redshift trials, are 5.8 sigma (z_X = 0.312; 6.3 sigma if the low-significance OV and CV K-beta associations are considered), 3.9 sigma (z_X = 0.237), and 3.8 sigma (langle z_X rangle = 0.133), respectively.
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We present a re-analysis, with newly acquired atomic data, of the two detections of two highly ionized intervening OVII absorbers reported by Nicastro and collaborators (2018). We confirm both intervening Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium OVII detections, and revise statistical significance and physical parameters of the absorber at $z=0.4339$ in light of its partial contamination by Galactic interstellar medium NII K$alpha$ absorption.
TeV blazars are known as prominent nonthermal emitters across the entire electromagnetic spectrum with their photon power peaking in the X-ray and TeV bands. If distant, absorption of gamma-ray photons by the extragalactic background light (EBL) alters the intrinsic TeV spectral shape, thereby affecting the overall interpretation. Suzaku observations for two of the more distant TeV blazars known to date, 1ES 1101-232 and 1ES 1553+113, were carried out in 2006 May and July, respectively, including a quasi-simultaneous coverage with the state-of-the-art Cerenkov telescope facilities. We report on the resulting data sets with emphasis on the X-ray band and set in context to their historical behavior. During our campaign, we did not detect any significant X-ray or gamma-ray variability. 1ES 1101-232 was found in a quiescent state with the lowest X-ray flux ever measured. The combined XIS and HXD PIN data for 1ES 1101-232 and 1ES 1553+113 clearly indicate spectral curvature up to the highest hard X-ray data point (~30 keV), manifesting as softening with increasing energy. We describe this spectral shape by either a broken power law or a log-parabolic fit with equal statistical goodness of fits. The combined 1ES 1553+113 very high energy spectrum (90-500 GeV) did not show any significant changes with respect to earlier observations. The resulting contemporaneous broadband spectral energy distributions of both TeV blazars are discussed in view of implications for intrinsic blazar parameter values, taking into account the gamma-ray absorption in the EBL.
We report the Chandra detection of OVII Kalpha absorption at z=0 in the direction of the z=0.03 Seyfert 1 galaxy Mkn 279. The high velocity cloud Complex C lies along this line of sight, with HI 21-cm emission and OVI 1032AA absorption both observed at velocities of ~ -150 km/s relative to the local standard of rest. We present an improved method for placing limits on the Doppler parameter and column density of a medium when only one unresolved line can be measured; this method is applied to the OVII absorption seen here, indicating that the OVII Doppler parameter is inconsistent with that of any low-velocity (Galactic thick disk) or high-velocity OVI (OVI_HV) component. Direct association of the OVII with the OVI_HV is further ruled out by the high temperatures required to produce the observed OVI_HV/OVII ratio and the significant velocity difference between the OVII and OVI_HV lines. If the OVII absorption is associated with a very broad, undetected OVI component, then the absorption must be broadened by primarily nonthermal processes. The large velocity dispersion and possible slight redshift of the OVII absorption (as well as limits on the absorbers temperature and density) may be indicative of a local intergalactic medium origin, though absorption from a hot, low-density Galactic corona cannot be ruled out.
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Several popular cosmological models predict that most of the baryonic mass in the local universe is located in filamentary and sheet-like structures associated with groups and clusters of galaxies. This gas is expected to be gravitationally heated to ~10^6 K and therefore emitting in the soft X-rays. We have investigated three fields with large scale structures of galaxies at redshifts 0.1, 0.45, 0.79 and found signatures of warm-hot thermal emission (kT< 1 keV) correlated with the distribution of galaxies for the first two. The correlation and the properties of both X-ray and galaxy distribution strongly suggest that the diffuse X-ray flux is due to extragalactic emission by the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) predicted by cosmological models.
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