Metal Abundances in the Hot Interstellar Medium in Early-Type Galaxies Observed with ASCA

We have analyzed ASCA data of 27 early-type galaxies, and studied the properties of their X-ray emitting ISM (Inter Stellar Medium) in detail. We found that overlapping lines and free-bound continuum cause strong coupling in the derived abundances of various elements. The abundance determination is also difficult due to the uncertainties in the Fe-L atomic physics, because Fe-L lines couple with O and Ne K-lines. However, when abundances of $\alpha$-elements are fixed, all the plasma codes give similar Fe abundances with a scattering of only 20-30%. To relax the strong coupling among the elements, we included 20% systematic errors in the Fe-L region of the spectra. Then, in X-ray luminous galaxies, the derived abundance of Fe and $\alpha$-elements both became $\sim 1$ solar within a factor of 2. This result relaxes the previous severe discrepancy between the ISM and stellar metallicities. The ISM metallicity in X-ray fainter galaxies is still uncertain, but we can at least constrain that contribution from type-Ia SN to the ISM abundance is lower than in X-ray luminous systems. These results strongly suggest that a large fraction of SN Ia products have escaped into intergalactic space.Comment: 48 pages with 20 figures, Latex(PASJadd.sty, PASJ95.sty), accepted for publication in PAS

The origin of an extended X-ray emission apparently associated with the globular cluster 47 Tucanae

Using the Suzaku X-ray Imaging Spectrometer, we performed a 130 ks observation of an extended X-ray emission, which was shown by ROSAT and Chandra observations to apparently associate with the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. The obtained $0.5-6$ keV spectrum was successfully fitted with a redshifted thin thermal plasma emission model whose temperature and redshift are $2.2^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$keV (at the rest frame) and $0.34\pm0.02$, respectively. Derived parameters, including the temperature, redshift, and luminosity, indicate that the extended X-ray source is a background cluster of galaxies, and its projected location falls, by chance, on the direction of the proper motion of 47 Tucanae.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ Vol. 61 No.

Energy-Dependent Harmonic Ratios of the Cyclotron Features of X0331+53 in the 2004-2005 Outburst

We report on changes of the cyclotron resonance energies of the recurrent transient pulsar, X0331+53 (V0332+53). The whole RXTE data acquired in the 2004-2005 outburst were utilized. The 3-80 keV source luminosity varied between 1.7x10^36 and 3.5x10^38 ers/s, assuming a distance of 7 kpc. We confirmed that the fundamental cyclotron resonance energy changed from ~22 to ~27 keV in a clear anti-correlation to the source luminosity, and without any hysteresis effects between the rising and declining phases of the outburst. In contrast, the second harmonic energy changed from ~49 to ~54 keV, implying a weaker fractional change as a function of the luminosity. As a result, the observed resonance energy ratio between the second harmonic and the fundamental was ~2.2 when the source was most luminous, whereas the ratio decreased to the nominal value of 2.0 at the least luminous state. Although the significance of this effect is model dependent, these results suggest that the fundamental and second harmonic resonances represent different heights in the accretion column, depending on the mass accretion rate.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Excess Hard X-ray Emission from the Obscured Low Luminosity AGN In the Nearby Galaxy M 51 (NGC 5194)

We observed the nearby galaxy M~51 (NGC 5194) with BeppoSAX. The X-ray properties of the nucleus below 10 keV are almost the same as the ASCA results regarding the hard component and the neutral Fe K$\alpha$ line, but the intensity is about half of the ASCA 1993 data. Beyond this, in the BeppoSAX PDS data, we detected a bright hard X-ray emission component which dominates above 10 keV. The 10 -- 100 keV flux and luminosity of this component are respectively $2\times10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ and $2\times10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$. These are about 10 times higher than the extrapolation from the soft X-ray band, and similar to the flux observed with Ginga, which found a bright power law component in 2 -- 20 keV band. Considering other wavelength properties and the X-ray luminosity, together with strong neutral Fe K line, the hard X-ray emission most likely arises from a low luminosity active nucleus, which is obscured with a column density of $\sim10^{24}$cm$^{-2}$. This suggests that hidden low luminosity AGNs may well be present in other nearby galaxies. We interpret the discrepancy between Ginga and other X-ray satellites to be due to a large variability of absorption column density toward the line of sight over several years, suggesting that the Compton thick absorption material may be present on a spatial scale of a parsec. Apart from the nucleus, several ultra-luminous off-nuclear X-ray sources detected in M~51 exhibit long-term time variability, suggesting the state transition similar to that observed in Galactic black hole candidates.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for A&

Spectral Comparison of Weak Short Bursts to the Persistent X-rays from the Magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408 in its 2009 Outburst

In January 2009, the 2.1-sec anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1547.0-5408 evoked intense burst activity. A follow-up Suzaku observation on January 28 recorded enhanced persistent emission both in soft and hard X-rays (Enoto et al. 2010b). Through re-analysis of the same Suzaku data, 18 short bursts were identified in the X-ray events recorded by the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) and the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS). Their spectral peaks appear in the HXD-PIN band, and their 10-70 keV X-ray fluences range from ~2e-9 erg cm-2 to 1e-7 erg cm-2. Thus, the 18 events define a significantly weaker burst sample than was ever obtained, ~1e-8-1e-4 erg cm-2. In the ~0.8 to ~300 keV band, the spectra of the three brightest bursts can be represented successfully by a two-blackbody model, or a few alternative ones. A spectrum constructed by stacking 13 weaker short bursts with fluences in the range (0.2-2)e-8 erg s-1 is less curved, and its ratio to the persistent emission spectrum becomes constant at ~170 above ~8 keV. As a result, the two-blackbody model was able to reproduce the stacked weaker-burst spectrum only after adding a power-law model, of which the photon index is fixed at 1.54 as measured is the persistent spectrum. These results imply a possibility that the spectrum composition employing an optically-thick component and a hard power-law component can describe wide-band spectra of both the persistent and weak-burst emissions, despite a difference of their fluxes by two orders of magnitude. Based on the spectral similarity, a possible connection between the unresolved short bursts and the persistent emission is discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journa

Long-term X-ray variability of quasars in the Lockman Hole field observed with ROSAT

An improved method is utilized to estimate the X-ray power spectral densities (PSD) and the variation time scales of three quasars in the Lockman Hole field. Five archival ROSAT PSPC data covering two year range are analyzed. To estimate PSD from sparse and unevenly-sampled lightcurves, a forward-method approach with extensive Monte-Carlo simulations is adopted. A broken power-law type PSD with a constant Poisson noise component is assumed with a break frequency $f_{\rm b}$. Then, assuming the PSD slope $\alpha$ as $-2<\alpha<-1$, $1/ f_{\rm b}$ is constrained as $\gtrsim$ 25 days for one object, while the constraints on the other two objects are very weak. The long time scale of the one object is consistent with the view that luminous AGNs host massive black holes.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted in PAS