X-ray Evolution of SN 1987A

The X-ray observations of SN 1987A over the previous 20 years have seen the emergence of soft X-rays from the interaction of the explosion shock wave with the ambient medium. This shock wave is now interacting strongly with the inner ring and might have passed already the highest density regions. The emission can be described by thermal models with two temperatures, with perhaps some but little change over time. Relative to the elemental abundances prevailing in the LMC the inner ring shows an overabundance of Si and S compared to the lighter elements and Fe, which suggests that the ring consists of highly processed matter dredged up in a binary merger event well before the explosion. The X-ray lightcurves between 0.5--2 keV and 3--10 keV differ significantly in slope, with the latter being much flatter but very similar to the radio light curve.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures; review talk to appear in the AIP Proceedings of the Conference " Supernova 1987A: 20 Years after - Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursters" held in Aspen Co USA, Feb 19-23, 200

X-rays from Supernova Remnants

A summary of X-ray observations of supernova remnants is presented including the explosion fragment A of the Vela SNR, Tycho, N132D, RX J0852-4622, the Crab Nebula and the 'bulls eye', and SN 1987A, high-lighting the progress made with Chandra and XMM-Newton and touching upon the questions which arise from these observations and which might inspire future research.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 270. WE-Heraeus Seminar on Neutron Stars, Pulsars and Supernova Remnants, Jan. 21-25, 2002, Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, eds W. Becker, H. Lesch & J. Truemper. Proceedings are available as MPE-Report 27

Measurement of Mass and Spin of Black Holes with QPOs

There are now four low mass X-ray binaries with black holes which show twin resonant-like HFQPOs. Similar QPOs might have been found in Sgr A*. I review the power spectral density distributions of the three X-ray flares and the six NIR flares published for Sgr A* so far, in order to look for more similarities than just the frequencies between the microquasar black holes and Sgr A*. The three X-ray flares of Sgr A* are re-analysed in an identical way and white noise probabilities from their power density distributions are given for the periods reported around 1100 s. Progress of the resonant theory using the anomalous orbital velocity effect is summarized.Comment: 7 pages, talk given at the 2007 Frascati workshop, acc. for publication in the Chin. J. Astron. Astrophy

Temporal Variability of the X-ray Emission of the Crab Nebula Torus

We have analyzed five ROSAT HRI images of the Crab Nebula spanning the years 1991 to 1997 and have found significant changes in the emission structure of the X-ray torus surrounding the pulsar. Certain regions increase in brightness by about 20% over the six years, while others show decreases in surface brightness. The origin of these changes is unclear, but a possible explanation is that the bulk velocity of the synchrotron radiating electrons has decreased on the order of 20% as well.Comment: 15 pages plus 6 figures, figure 1 and figure 6 are in color, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal, Jan 1, 1999, Vol. 510, #

XMM-Newton observation of SN1993J in M81

In April 2001 SN1993J was observed with both the PN and MOS cameras of the XMM-Newton observatory, resulting in about 7. x 10^4 s of acceptable observation time. Fit results with both the PN and MOS2 camera spectra studying different spectral models are presented. The spectra are best fitted in the energy range between 0.3 and 11 keV by a 2-component thermal model with temperatures of kT_1 = 0.34+-0.04 keV and kT_2 = 6.54+-4 keV, adopting ionization equilibrium. A fit with a shock model also provides acceptable results. Combining the XMM-Newton data with former X-ray observations of the supernova, we discuss the general trend of L_x propto t^{-0.30} and the bump of the X-ray light curve as well as former and recent spectral results in the light of the standard SN model as first proposed by Chevalier in 1982.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Spectroscopic Study of the Vela-Shrapnel

Several shrapnels have been detected in the vicinity of Vela SNR by the ROSAT all-sky survey. We present here the spectral properties of shrapnel `A' observed with the ASCA satellite. A prominent Si-K emission line with relatively weak emission lines from other elements have been detected, revealing that the relative abundance of Si is a few ten-times higher than those of other elements. Combining with the ROSAT PSPC results, we obtained the electron temperature, $kT_{\rm e}$, to be $0.33 \pm 0.01$ keV. The total mass of shrapnel `A' is estimated to be $\sim 0.01 M_\odot$. If it is an ejecta of a supernova explosion, the interstellar matter (ISM) would be swept up in the leading edge while the ejecta material would be peeled off in the trailing edge, which should be confirmed by future observations.Comment: 19pages, 5 figures, 1 table; Accepted for Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japa

In-orbit performance of the XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes: images and spectra

The performance of the three X-ray telescopes on-board of XMM-Newton is evaluated addressing imaging characteristics and effective collecting area. The agreement with ground calibration data is excellent. The analysis of images and spectra of cosmic X-ray sources, emphazising supernova and supernova remnants, prooves that the telescopes are even better than originally required.Comment: 13 pages, 20 jpg figures, for SPIE Proc. 4496, paper 0