Metal Rich Plasma at the Center Portion of the Cygnus Loop

We observed the center portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant with the ASCA observatory. The X-ray spectrum of the center portion was significantly different from that obtained at the North-East (NE) limb. The emission lines from Si and S were quite strong while those of O and the continuum emission were similar to those obtained at the NE limb. Based on the spectral analysis, Si and S emission lines originated from a high-kTe and low ionization plasma whereas O and most of the continuum emission arose from a low-kTe and high ionization plasma. We suppose that Si and S emitting gas are present at the interior of the Loop while O lines and continuum emission mainly arise from the shell region. Therefore, we subtracted the spectrum of the NE limb from that of the center. Obtained abundances of Si, S, and Fe were 4 $\pm$ 1, 6 $\pm$ 2, and ${1.3}^{+0.6}_{-0.3}$ times higher than those of the cosmic abundances, respectively, and are $\sim$40 times richer than those obtained at the NE limb. These facts strongly support that some of the crude ejecta must be left at the center portion of the Cygnus Loop. The low abundance of Fe relative to Si and S suggests a type II SN with a massive progenitor star as the origin of the Cygnus Loop.Comment: Accepted for Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 40 pages, 12 Postscript figures, uses PASJ95.sty, PASJadd.sty, and psbox.st

Discovery of the compact X-ray source inside the Cygnus Loop

We detected an X-ray compact source inside the Cygnus Loop during the observation project of the whole Cygnus Loop with the ASCA GIS. The source intensity is 0.11 c s$^{-1}$ for GIS and 0.15 c s$^{-1}$ for SIS, which is the strongest in the ASCA band. The X-ray spectra are well fitted by a power law spectrum of a photon index of \error{-2.1}{0.1} with neutral H column of (\error{3.1}{0.6})${\rm \times 10^{21} cm^{-2}}$. Taking into account the interstellar absorption feature, this source is X-ray bright mainly above 1 keV suggesting either an AGN or a rotating neutron star. So far, we did not detect intensity variation nor coherent pulsation mainly due to the limited observation time. There are several optical bright stellar objects within the error region of the X-ray image. We carried out the optical spectroscopy for the brightest source (V=+12.6) and found it to be a G star. The follow up deep observation both in optical and in X-ray wavelengths are strongly required.Comment: Accepted for Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 17 pages, 3 figur

Reflection Shocked Gas in the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant

We performed spectroscopic X-ray observations of the eastern and northern regions of the Cygnus Loop with the ASCA observatory. The X-ray surface brightness of these regions shows a complex structure in the ROSAT all-sky survey image. We carried out a spatially-resolved analysis for both regions and found that $kT_{\rm e}$ did not increase toward the center region, but showed inhomogeneous structures. Such variation cannot be explained by a blast wave model propagating into a homogeneous interstellar medium. We thus investigated the interaction between a blast wave and an interstellar cloud. Two major emission mechanisms are plausible: a cloud evaporation model and a reflection shock model. In both regions, only a reflection shock model qualitatively explains our results. Our results suggest the existence of a large-scale interstellar cloud. We suppose that such a large-scale structure would be produced by a precursor.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication of ApJ. High resolution and color figures are available at http://wwwxray.ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp/~miyata/paper/cygloop_reflection.pd

Spatially Resolved X-ray Spectroscopy of Vela Shrapnel A

We present the detailed X-ray spectroscopy of Vela shrapnel A with the XMM-Newton satellite. Vela shrapnel A is one of several protrusions identified as bullets from Vela supernova explosion. The XMM-Newton image shows that shrapnel A consists of a bright knot and a faint trailing wake. We extracted spectra from various regions, finding a prominent Si Ly$_\alpha$ emission line in all the spectra. All the spectra are well represented by the non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) model. The abundances are estimated to be O$\sim$0.3, Ne$\sim$0.9, Mg$\sim$0.8, Si$\sim$3, Fe$\sim$0.8 times their solar values. The non-solar abundance ratio between O and Si indicates that shrapnel A originates from a deep layer of a progenitor star. We found that the relative abundances between heavy elements are almost uniform in shrapnel A, which suggests that the ejecta from supernova explosion are well mixed with swept-up interstellar medium.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, ApJ 10 May 2006, v642 2 issu

Scattering and Iron Fluorescence Revealed During Absorption Dips in Circinus X-1

We show that dramatic spectral evolution associated with dips occurring near phase zero in RXTE observations of Cir X-1 is well-fit by variable and at times heavy absorption (N_H > 10^24 cm^-2) of a bright component, plus an underlying faint component which is not attenuated by the variable column and whose flux is ~10% of that of the unabsorbed bright component. A prominent Fe emission line at ~6.5 keV is evident during the dips. The absolute line flux outside the dips is similar to that during the dips, indicating that the line is associated with the faint component. These results are consistent with a model in which the bright component is radiation received directly from a compact source while the faint component may be attributed to scattered radiation. Our results are also generally consistent with those of Brandt et al., who found that a partial- covering model could explain ASCA spectra of a low-to-high transition in Cir X-1. The relative brightness of the two components in our model requires a column density of ~2*10^23 cm^-2 if the faint component is due to Thomson scattering in material that mostly surrounds the source. We find that illumination of such a scattering cloud by the observed direct component would produce an Fe K-alpha fluorescence flux that is in rough agreement with the flux of the observed emission line. We also conclude that if the scattering medium is not highly ionized, our line of sight to the compact source does not pass through it. Finally, we discuss simple pictures of the absorbers responsible for the dips themselves.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (23 pages, including 11 figures

Wide band X-ray Imager (WXI) and Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) for the NeXT Mission

The NeXT mission has been proposed to study high-energy non-thermal phenomena in the universe. The high-energy response of the super mirror will enable us to perform the first sensitive imaging observations up to 80 keV. The focal plane detector, which combines a fully depleted X-ray CCD and a pixellated CdTe detector, will provide spectra and images in the wide energy range from 0.5 keV to 80 keV. In the soft gamma-ray band up to ~1 MeV, a narrow field-of-view Compton gamma-ray telescope utilizing several tens of layers of thin Si or CdTe detector will provide precise spectra with much higher sensitivity than present instruments. The continuum sensitivity will reach several times 10^(-8) photons/s/keV/cm^(2) in the hard X-ray region and a few times10^(-7) photons/s/keV/cm^(2) in the soft gamma-ray region.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, to be published in the SPIE proceedings 5488, typo corrected in sec.

On the Nature of AX J2049.6+2939 and AX J2050.0+2914

AX J2049.6+2939 is a compact X-ray source in the vicinity of the southern blow-up region of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant (Miyata et al. 1998a). This source was the brightest X-ray source inside the Cygnus Loop observed during the ASCA survey project. The X-ray spectrum was well fitted by a power-law function with a photon index of $-2.1 \pm 0.1$. Short-term timing analysis was performed and no coherent pulsation was found. Follow-up observations with ASCA have revealed a large variation in X-ray intensity by a factor of $\simeq$ 50, whereas the spectral shape did not change within the statistical uncertainties. In the second ASCA observation, we found another X-ray source, AX J2050.0+2941, at the north east of AX J2049.6+2939. During the three ASCA observations, the X-ray intensity of AX J2050.0+2941 varied by a factor of $\simeq$4. No coherent pulsations could be found for AX J2050.0+2941. We have performed optical photometric and spectroscopic observations in the vicinity of AX J2049.6+2939 at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO). As a result, all objects brighter than $B$-band magnitude of 22 in the error box can be identified with normal stars. Combined with the X-ray results and the fact that there are no radio counterparts, AX J2049.6+2939 is not likely to be either an ordinary rotation-powered pulsar or an AGN. The nature of AX J2049.6+2939 is still unclear and further observations over a wide energy band are strongly required. As to AX J2050.0+2941, the long-term X-ray variability and the radio counterpart suggests that it is an AGN.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication by Astrophysical Journa

Performance of the Charge Injection Capability of Suzaku XIS

A charge injection technique is applied to the X-ray CCD camera, XIS (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer) onboard Suzaku. The charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) in each CCD column (vertical transfer channel) is measured by the injection of charge packets into a transfer channel and subsequent readout. This paper reports the performances of the charge injection capability based on the ground experiments using a radiation damaged device, and in-orbit measurements of the XIS. The ground experiments show that charges are stably injected with the dispersion of 91eV in FWHM in a specific column for the charges equivalent to the X-ray energy of 5.1keV. This dispersion width is significantly smaller than that of the X-ray events of 113eV (FWHM) at approximately the same energy. The amount of charge loss during transfer in a specific column, which is measured with the charge injection capability, is consistent with that measured with the calibration source. These results indicate that the charge injection technique can accurately measure column-dependent charge losses rather than the calibration sources. The column-to-column CTI correction to the calibration source spectra significantly reduces the line widths compared to those with a column-averaged CTI correction (from 193eV to 173eV in FWHM on an average at the time of one year after the launch). In addition, this method significantly reduces the low energy tail in the line profile of the calibration source spectrum.Comment: Paper contains 18 figures and 15 tables. Accepted for publication in PAS