No Arabic abstract
We introduce a distinct method to perform spatially-resolved spectral analysis of astronomical sources with highly structured X-ray emission. The method measures the surface brightness of neighbouring pixels to adaptively size and shape each region, thus the spectra from the bright and faint filamentary structures evident in the broadband images can be extracted. As a test case, we present the spectral analysis of the complete X-ray emitting plasma in the supernova remnant Puppis A observed with XMM-Newton and Chandra. Given the angular size of Puppis A, many pointings with different observational configurations have to be combined, presenting a challenge to any method of spatially-resolved spectroscopy. From the fit of a plane-parallel shocked plasma model we find that temperature, absorption column, ionization time scale, emission measure and elemental abundances of O, Ne, Mg, Si, S and Fe, are smoothly distributed in the remnant. Some regions with overabundances of O-Ne-Mg, previously characterized as ejecta material, were automatically selected by our method, proving the excellent response of the technique. This method is an advantageous tool for the exploitation of archival X-ray data.
HESS J1858+020 is a TeV gamma-ray source that was reported not to have any clear cataloged counterpart at any wavelength. However, it has been recently proposed that this source is indirectly associated with the radio source, re-identified as a supernova remnant (SNR), G35.6-0.4. The latter is found to be middle-aged ($sim 30$ kyr) and to have nearby molecular clouds (MCs). HESS J1858+020 was proposed to be the result of the interaction of protons accelerated in the SNR shell with target ions residing in the clouds. The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) First Source Catalog does not list any source coincident with the position of HESS J1858+020, but some lie close. Here, we analyse more than 2 years of data obtained with the Fermi-LAT for the region of interest, and consider whether it is indeed possible that the closest LAT source, 1FGL J1857.1+0212c, is related to HESS J1858+020. We conclude it is not, and we impose upper limits on the GeV emission originating from HESS J1858+020. Using a simplified 3D model for the cosmic-ray propagation out from the shell of the SNR, we consider whether the interaction between SNR G35.6-0.4 and the MCs nearby could give rise to the TeV emission of HESS J1858+020 without producing a GeV counterpart. If so, the pair of SNR/TeV source with no GeV detection would be reminiscent of other similarly-aged SNRs, such as some of the TeV hotspots near W28, for which cosmic-ray diffusion may be used to explain their multi-frequency phenomenology. However, for HESS J1858+020, we found that although the phase space in principle allows for such GeV--TeV non-correlation to appear, usual and/or observationally constrained values of the parameters (e.g., diffusion coefficients and cloud-SNR likely distances) would disfavor it.
The galactic cosmic rays are generally believed to be originated in supernova remnants (SNRs), produced in diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) process in supernova blast waves driven by expanding SNRs. One of the key unsettled issue in SNR origin of cosmic ray model is the maximum attainable energy by a cosmic ray particle in the supernova shock. Recently it has been suggested that an amplification of effective magnetic field strength at the shock may take place in young SNRs due to growth of magnetic waves induced by accelerated cosmic rays and as a result the maximum energy achieved by cosmic rays in SNR may reach the knee energy instead of $sim 200$ TeV as predicted earlier under normal magnetic field situation. In the present work we investigate the implication of such maximum energy scenarios on TeV gamma rays and neutrino fluxes from the molecular clouds interacting with the SNR W28. The authors compute the gamma-ray and neutrino flux assuming two different values for the maximum energy reached by cosmic rays in the SNR, from CR interaction in nearby molecular clouds. Both protons and nuclei are considered as accelerated particles and as target material. Our findings suggest that the issue of the maximum energy of cosmic rays in SNRs can be observationally settled by the upcoming gamma-ray experiment the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). The estimated neutrino fluxes from the molecular clouds are , however, out of reach of the present/near future generation of neutrino telescopes.
We have obtained a very deep exposure (813 ks) of $zeta,$Puppis (O4 supergiant) with the Chandra/HETG Spectrometer. Here we report on analysis of the 1-9 r{A} region, especially well suited for Chandra, which has a significant contribution from continuum emission between well separated emission lines from high-ionization species. These data allow us to study the hottest plasma present through the continuum shape and emission line strengths. Assuming a powerlaw emission measure distribution which has a high-temperature cut-off, we find that the emission is consistent with a thermal spectrum having a maximum temperature of 12 MK. This implies an effective wind shock velocity of $900,mathrm{km,s^{-1}}$, well below the wind terminal speed of $2250,mathrm{km,s^{-1}}$. For X-ray emission which forms close to the star, the speed and X-ray flux are larger than can be easily reconciled with strictly self-excited line-deshadowing-instability models, suggesting a need for a fraction of the wind to be accelerated extremely rapidly right from the base. This is not so much a dynamical instability as a nonlinear response to changing boundary conditions.
The Supernova Remnant (SNR) HESS J1731-347 displays strong non-thermal TeV gamma-ray and X-ray emission, thus the object is at present time accelerating particles to very high energies. A distinctive feature of this young SNR is the nearby (~30 pc in projection) extended source HESS J1729-345, which is currently unidentified but is in spatial projection coinciding with known molecular clouds (MC). We model the SNR evolution to explore if the TeV emission from HESS J1729-345 can be explained as emission from runaway hadronic cosmic rays (CRs) that are illuminating these MCs. The observational data of HESS J1729-345 and HESS J1731-347 can be reproduced using core-collapse SN models for HESS J1731-347. Starting with different progenitor stars and their pre-supernova environment, we model potential SNR evolution histories along with the CR acceleration in the SNR and the diffusion of the CRs. A simplified 3-dimensional structure of the MCs is introduced based on 12CO data, adopting a distance of 3.2 kpc to the source. A Monte Carlo-based diffusion model for the escaping CRs is developed to deal with the inhomogeneous environment. The fast SNR forward shock speed as implied from the X-ray data can easily be explained when employing scenarios with progenitor star masses between 20 and 25 solar masses, where the SNR shock is still expanding inside the main sequence (MS)-bubble at present time. The TeV spectrum of HESS J1729-345 is satisfactorily fitted by the emission from the highest-energy CRs that have escaped the SNR, using a standard galactic CR diffusion coefficient in the inter-clump medium. The TeV image of HESS J1729-345 can be explained with a reasonable 3-dimensional structure of MCs. The TeV emission from the SNR itself is dominated by leptonic emission in this model. We also explore scenarios where the shock is starting to encounter the dense MS progenitor wind bubble shell.
The Vela and Puppis A supernova remnants (SNRs) comprise a large emission region of $sim 8^{circ}$ diameter in the soft X-ray sky. The HaloSat CubeSat mission provides the first soft X-ray ($0.4-7$ keV) observation of the entire Vela SNR and Puppis A SNR region with a single pointing and moderate spectral resolution. HaloSat observations of the Vela SNR are best fit with a two-temperature thermal plasma model consisting of a cooler component with $kT_{1} = 0.19^{+0.01}_{-0.01}$ keV in collisional ionization equilibrium and a hotter component with $kT_{2} = 1.06^{+0.45}_{-0.27}$ keV in non-equilibrium ionization. Observations of the Puppis A SNR are best fit with a single-component plane-parallel shocked plasma model with $kT = 0.86^{+0.06}_{-0.05}$ keV in non-equilibrium ionization. For the first time, we find the total X-ray luminosities of both components of the Vela SNR spectrum in the $0.5-7$ keV energy band to be $L_X = 4.4^{+1.4}_{-1.4} times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ for the cooler component and $L_X = 4.1^{+1.8}_{-1.5} times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ for the hotter component. We find the total X-ray luminosities of the Vela and Puppis A SNRs to be $L_{text{X}} = 8.4 times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and $L_X = 6.7^{+1.1}_{-0.9} times 10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$.