A Study of Fermi-LAT GeV gamma-ray Emission towards the Magnetar-harboring Supernova Remnant Kesteven 73 and Its Molecular Environment

We report our independent GeV gamma-ray study of the young shell-type supernova remnant (SNR) Kes 73 which harbors a central magnetar, and CO-line millimeter observations toward the SNR. Using 7.6 years of Fermi-LAT observation data, we detected an extended gamma-ray source ("source A") with the centroid on the west of the SNR, with a significance of 21.6 sigma in 0.1-300 GeV and an error circle of 5.4 arcminute in angular radius. The gamma-ray spectrum cannot be reproduced by a pure leptonic emission or a pure emission from the magnetar, and thus a hadronic emission component is needed. The CO-line observations reveal a molecular cloud (MC) at V_LSR~90 km/s, which demonstrates morphological correspondence with the western boundary of the SNR brightened in multiwavelength. The 12CO (J=2-1)/12CO (J=1-0) ratio in the left (blue) wing 85-88 km/s is prominently elevated to ~1.1 along the northwestern boundary, providing kinematic evidence of the SNR-MC interaction. This SNR-MC association yields a kinematic distance 9 kpc to Kes 73. The MC is shown to be capable of accounting for the hadronic gamma-ray emission component. The gamma-ray spectrum can be interpreted with a pure hadronic emission or a magnetar+hadronic hybrid emission. In the case of pure hadronic emission, the spectral index of the protons is 2.4, very similar to that of the radio-emitting electrons, essentially consistent with the diffusive shock acceleration theory. In the case of magnetar+hadronic hybrid emission, a magnetic field decay rate >= 10^36 erg/s is needed to power the magnetar's curvature radiation.Comment: 7 figures, published in Ap

Prolate-oblate asymmetric shape phase transition in the interacting boson model with SU (3) higher-order interactions

Prolate-oblate shape phase transition is an interesting topic in nuclear structure, which is useful for understanding the intrinsic interactions between nucleons. Recently, the interacting boson model with $SU(3)$ higher-order interactions was proposed, in which the prolate shape and the oblate shape are not described in a mirror symmetric way. This asymmetric description seems more realistic. The level evolutions, $B(E2)$ values and other important indicators showing the prolate-oblate asymmetric transitions are investigated in detail, and realistic structure evolutions from $^{180}$Hf to $^{200}$Hg are compared. A key finding is that, the average deformation of the prolate shape is nearly twice the one of the oblate shape. These results, together with the successful description of the $B(E2)$ anomaly in $^{168,170}$Os, $^{172}$Pt, the $\gamma$-soft properties of $^{196}$Pt, $^{82}$Kr and the normal states of $^{110}$Cd, support the validity of the new model.Comment: 16pages,19 figure

Emerging γ\gamma-softness in 196^{196}Pt in the SU3-IBM

Recently, it has been argued that a new $\gamma$-soft rotational spectrum emerges in the interacting boson model with SU(3) higher-order interactions, opening up new approaches to understand the $\gamma$-softness in realistic nuclei. In a previous paper, $\gamma$-softness with degeneracy of the ground and quasi-$\gamma$ bands is observed, which displays a O(5) partial dynamical symmetry. In this paper, another special point connected with the middle degenerate point is discussed, which is found to be related with the properties of $^{196}$Pt. This emergent $\gamma$-softness has also been shown to be important for understanding the prolate-oblate asymmetric shape phase transition. The low-lying spectra, $B(E2)$ values and quadrupole moments in $^{196}$Pt are discussed showing that the new model can account for several observed features