arXiv subjects

Aya Bamba

Publications and source records attributed to Aya Bamba.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

An X-ray counterpart of HESS J1427-608 discovered with Suzaku

We report the discovery of an X-ray counterpart of the unidentified very high energy gamma-ray source HESS J1427-608. In the sky field coincident with HESS J1427-608, an extended source was found in the 2-8 keV band, and was designated as Suzaku J1427-6051. Its X-ray radial profile has an extension of sigma=0.9' +/- 0.1' if approximated by a Gaussian. The spectrum was well fitted by an absorbed power-law with N_H=(1.1 +/- 0.3) times 10^23 cm^-2, Gamma=3.1 +0.6/-0.5, and the unabsorbed flux F_X=(9 +4/-2) times 10^-13 erg s^-1 cm^-2 in the 2-10 keV band. Using XMM-Newton archive data, we found seven point sources in the Suzaku source region. However, because their total flux and absorbing column densities are more than an order of magnitude lower than those of Suzaku J1427-6051, we consider that they are unrelated to the Suzaku source. Thus, Suzaku J1427-6051 is considered to be a truly diffuse source and an X-ray counterpart of HESS J1427-608. The possible nature of HESS J1427-608 is discussed based on the observational properties.

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arXiv2012

X-Ray Observations of the W51 Complex with Suzaku

We present a detailed analysis of the X-ray emission from the middle-aged supernova remnant W51C and star-forming region W51B with Suzaku. The soft X-ray emission from W51C is well represented by an optically thin thermal plasma in the non-equilibrium ionization state with a temperature of $\sim$0.7 keV. The elemental abundance of Mg is significantly higher than the solar value. We find no significant feature of an over-ionized plasma in W51C. The hard X-ray emission is spatially coincident with the molecular clouds associated with W51B, overlapping with W51C. The spectrum is represented by an optically thin thermal plasma with a temperature of $\sim$5 keV or a powerlaw model with a photon index of $\sim$2.2. The emission probably has diffuse nature since its luminosity of 1$\times10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 0.5-10 keV band cannot be explained by the emission from point sources in this region. We discuss the possibility that the hard X-ray emission comes from stellar winds of OB stars in W51B or accelerated particles in W51C.

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arXiv2012

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

Search for Diffuse X-rays from the Bow Shock Region of Runaway Star BD+43$^\circ$3654 with Suzaku

The bow shocks of runaway stars with strong stellar winds of over 2000 km s$^{-1}$ can serve as particle acceleration sites. The conversion from stellar wind luminosity into particle acceleration power has an efficiency of the same order of magnitude as those in supernova remnants, based on the radio emission from the bow shock region of runaway star BD+43$^\circ$3654 \citep{Benaglia10}.If this object exhibits typical characteristics, then runaway star systems can contribute a non-negligible fraction of Galactic cosmic-ray electrons. To constrain the maximum energy of accelerated particles from measurements of possible non-thermal emissions in the X-ray band, Suzaku observed BD+43$^\circ$3654 in April 2011 with an exposure of 99 ks. Because the onboard instruments have a stable and low background level, Suzaku detected a possible enhancement over the background of $7.6\pm 3.4$ cnt arcmin$^{-2}$ at the bow shock region, where the error represents the 3 sigma statistics only. However, the excess is not significant within the systematic errors of non-X-ray and cosmic-ray backgrounds of the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer, which are $\pm 6.0$ and $\pm 34$ cnt arcmin$^{-2}$, respectively, and the 3-sigma upper limit in the X-ray luminosity from the shock region, which is $1.1 \times 10^{32}$ erg s$^{-1}$ per 41.2 arcmin$^2$ in the 0.5 to 10 keV band. This result leads to three conclusions: (1) a shock-heating process is inefficient on this system; (2) the maximum energy of electrons does not exceed $\sim$ 10 TeV, corresponding to a Lorentz factor of less than $10^7$; and (3) the magnetic field in the shock acceleration site might not be as turbulent as those in pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants.

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arXiv2012

Suzaku Observations of the Non-thermal Supernova Remnant HESS J1731-347

A detailed analysis of the nonthermal X-ray emission from the North-Western and Southern parts of the supernova remnant (SNR) HESS J1731$ - $347 with {\it Suzaku} is presented. The shell portions covered by the observations emit hard and line-less X-rays. The spectrum can be reproduced by a simple absorbed power-law model with a photon index $Γ$ of 1.8-2.7 and an absorption column density $N_{\rm H}$ of (1.0-2.1)$\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$. These quantities change significantly from region to region; the North-Western part of the SNR has the hardest and most absorbed spectrum. The Western part of the X-ray shell has a smaller curvature than North-Western and Southern shell segments. A comparison of the X-ray morphology to the Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray and radio images was performed. The efficiency of electron acceleration and emission mechanism in each portion of the shell are discussed. Thermal X-ray emission from the SNR was searched for but could not be detected at a significant level.

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arXiv2012

X-ray investigation of the diffuse emission around plausible gamma-ray emitting pulsar wind nebulae in Kookaburra region

We report on the results from {\it Suzaku} X-ray observations of the radio complex region called Kookaburra, which includes two adjacent TeV $γ$-ray sources HESS J1418-609 and HESS J1420-607. The {\it Suzaku} observation revealed X-ray diffuse emission around a middle-aged pulsar PSR J1420-6048 and a plausible PWN Rabbit with elongated sizes of $σ_{\rm X}=1^{\prime}.66$ and $σ_{\rm X}=1^{\prime}.49$, respectively. The peaks of the diffuse X-ray emission are located within the $γ$-ray excess maps obtained by H.E.S.S. and the offsets from the $γ$-ray peaks are $2^{\prime}.8$ for PSR J1420-6048 and $4^{\prime}.5$ for Rabbit. The X-ray spectra of the two sources were well reproduced by absorbed power-law models with $Γ=1.7-2.3$. The spectral shapes tend to become softer according to the distance from the X-ray peaks. Assuming the one zone electron emission model as the first order approximation, the ambient magnetic field strengths of HESS J1420-607 and HESS J1418-609 can be estimated as 3 $μ$G, and $2.5 μ$G, respectively. The X-ray spectral and spatial properties strongly support that both TeV sources are pulsar wind nebulae, in which electrons and positrons accelerated at termination shocks of the pulsar winds are losing their energies via the synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering as they are transported outward.

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arXiv2011

Data-oriented Diagnostics of Pileup Effects on the Suzaku XIS

We present the result of a systematic study of pileup phenomena seen in the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer, an X-ray CCD instrument, onboard the Suzaku observatory. Using a data set of observed sources in a wide range of brightness and spectral hardness, we characterized the pileup fraction, spectral hardening, and grade migration as a function of observed count rate in a frame per pixel. Using the pileup fraction as a measure of the degree of pileup, we found that the relative spectral hardening (the hardness ratio normalized to the intrinsic spectral hardness), branching ratio of split events, and that of detached events increase monotonically as the pileup fraction increases, despite the variety of brightness and hardness of the sample sources. We derived the pileup fraction as a function of radius used for event extraction. Upon practical considerations, we found that events outside of the radius with a pileup fraction of 1% or 3% are useful for spectral analysis. We present relevant figures, tables, and software for the convenience of users who wish to apply our method for their data reduction of piled-up sources.

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arXiv2011

Evolution of Synchrotron X-rays in Supernova Remnants

A systematic study of the synchrotron X-ray emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) has been conducted. We selected a total of 12 SNRs whose synchrotron X-ray spectral parameters are available in the literature with reasonable accuracy, and studied how their luminosities change as a function of radius. It is found that the synchrotron X-ray luminosity tends to drop especially when the SNRs become larger than ~5 pc, despite large scatter. This may be explained by the change of spectral shape caused by the decrease of the synchrotron roll-off energy. A simple evolutionary model of the X-ray luminosity is proposed and is found to reproduce the observed data approximately, with reasonable model parameters. According to the model, the total energy of accelerated electrons is estimated to be 10^(47-48) ergs, which is well below the supernova explosion energy. The maximum energies of accelerated electrons and protons are also discussed.

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arXiv2011

Suzaku Observation of the Intermediate Polar V1223 Sagittarii

We report on the Suzaku observation of the intermediate polar V1223 Sagittarii. Using a multi-temperature plasma emission model with its reflection from a cold matter, we obtained the shock temperature to be 37.9^{+5.1}_{-4.6} keV. This constrains the mass and the radius of the white dwarf (WD) in the ranges 0.82^{+0.05}_{-0.06} solar masses and (6.9+/-0.4)x10^8 cm, respectively, with the aid of a WD mass-radius relation. The solid angle of the reflector viewed from the post-shock plasma was measured to be Omega/2pi = 0.91+/-0.26. A fluorescent iron Kalpha emission line is detected, whose central energy is discovered to be modulated with the WD rotation for the first time in magnetic-CVs. Detailed spectral analysis indicates that the line comprises of a stable 6.4 keV component and a red-shifted component, the latter of which appears only around the rotational intensity-minimum phase. The equivalent width (EW) of the former stable component ~80 eV together with the measured Omega indicates the major reflector is the WD surface, and the shock height is not more than 7% of the WD radius. Comparing this limitation to the height predicted by the Aizu model (1973), we estimated the fractional area onto which the accretion occurs to be < 7x10^{-3}$ of the WD radius, which is the most severe constraint in non-eclipsing IPs. The red-shifted iron line component, on the other hand, can be interpreted as emanating from the pre-shock accretion flow via fluorescence. Its EW (28^{+44}_{-13} eV) and the central energy (6.30_{-0.05}^{+0.07} keV) at the intensity-minimum phase are consistent with this interpretation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

Suzaku observation of the unidentified VHE gamma-ray source HESS J1702-420

A deep X-ray observation of the unidentified very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray source HESS J1702-420, for the first time, was carried out by Suzaku. No bright sources were detected in the XIS field of view (FOV) except for two faint point-like sources. The two sources, however, are considered not to be related to HESS J1702-420, because their fluxes in the 2-10 keV band (~ 10^-14 erg s^-1 cm^-2) are ~ 3 orders of magnitude smaller than the VHE gamma-ray flux in the 1-10 TeV band (F_{TeV} = 3.1 x 10^-11 erg s^-1 cm^-2). We compared the energy spectrum of diffuse emission, extracted from the entire XIS FOV with those from nearby observations. If we consider the systematic error of background subtraction, no significant diffuse emission was detected with an upper limit of F_X <2.7 x 10^-12 erg s^-1 cm^-2 in the 2-10 keV band for an assumed power-law spectrum of Γ=2.1 and a source size same as that in the VHE band. The upper limit of the X-ray flux is twelve times as small as the VHE gamma-ray flux. The large flux ratio (F_{TeV}/F_X) indicates that HESS J1702-420 is another example of a "dark" particle accelerator. If we use a simple one-zone leptonic model, in which VHE gamma-rays are produced through inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background and interstellar far-infrared emission, and the X-rays via the synchrotron mechanism, an upper limit of the magnetic field (1.7 μG) is obtained from the flux ratio. Because the magnetic field is weaker than the typical value in the Galactic plane (3-10 μG), the simple one-zone model may not work for HESS J1702-420 and a significant fraction of the VHE gamma-rays may originate from protons.

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arXiv2011

Suzaku Detection of Diffuse Hard X-Ray Emission outside Vela X

Vela X is a large, 3x2 degrees, radio-emitting pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by the Vela pulsar in the Vela supernova remnant. Using four Suzaku/XIS observations pointed just outside Vela X, we find hard X-ray emission extending throughout the fields of view. The hard X-ray spectra are well represented by a power-law. The photon index is measured to be constant at Gamma~2.4, similar to that of the southern outer part of Vela X. The power-law flux decreases with increasing distance from the pulsar. These properties lead us to propose that the hard X-ray emission is associated with the Vela PWN. The larger X-ray extension found in this work strongly suggests that distinct populations relativistic electrons form the X-ray PWN and Vela X, as was recently inferred from multiwavelength spectral modeling of Vela X.

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arXiv2010

The radiative X-ray and gamma-ray efficiencies of rotation powered pulsars

We present a statistical analysis of the X-ray luminosity of rotation powered pulsars and their surrounding nebulae using the sample of Kargaltsev & Pavlov (2008) and we complement this with an analysis of the gamma-ray-emission of Fermi detected pulsars. We report a strong trend in the efficiency with which spin-down power is converted to X-ray and gamma-ray emission with characteristic age: young pulsars and their surrounding nebulae are efficient X-ray emitters, whereas in contrast old pulsars are efficient gamma-ray emitters. We divided the X-ray sample in a young (Tau < 1.7x10^4 yr) and old sample and used linear regression to search for correlations between the logarithm of the X-ray and gamma-ray luminosities and the logarithms of the periods and period derivatives. The X-ray emission from young pulsars and their nebulae are both consistent with L_X ~ Pdot^3/P^6. For old pulsars and their nebulae the X-ray luminosity is consistent with a more or less constant efficiency eta = L_X/Edot = ~ 8x10^-5. For the gamma-ray luminosity we confirm that L_gamma ~ Edot^(1/2). We discuss these findings in the context of pair production inside pulsar magnetospheres and the striped wind model. We suggest that the striped wind model may explain the similarity between the X-ray properties of the pulsar wind nebulae and the pulsars themselves, which according to the striped wind model may both find their origin outside the light cylinder, in the pulsar wind zone.

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arXiv2010

The ASTRO-H Mission

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe by performing high-resolution, high-throughput spectroscopy with moderate angular resolution. ASTRO-H covers very wide energy range from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. ASTRO-H allows a combination of wide band X-ray spectroscopy (5-80 keV) provided by multilayer coating, focusing hard X-ray mirrors and hard X-ray imaging detectors, and high energy-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (0.3-12 keV) provided by thin-foil X-ray optics and a micro-calorimeter array. The mission will also carry an X-ray CCD camera as a focal plane detector for a soft X-ray telescope (0.4-12 keV) and a non-focusing soft gamma-ray detector (40-600 keV) . The micro-calorimeter system is developed by an international collaboration led by ISAS/JAXA and NASA. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution of Delta E ~7 eV provided by the micro-calorimeter will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

Expansion Velocity of Ejecta in Tycho's Supernova Remnant Measured by Doppler Broadened X-ray Line Emission

We show that the expansion of ejecta in Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) is consistent with a spherically symmetric shell, based on Suzaku measurements of the Doppler broadened X-ray emission lines. All the strong K_alpha line emission show broader widths at the center than at the rim, while the centroid energies are constant across the remnant (except for Ca). This is the pattern expected for Doppler broadening due to expansion of the SNR ejecta in a spherical shell. To determine the expansion velocities of the ejecta, we applied a model for each emission line feature having two Gaussian components separately representing red- and blue-shifted gas, and inferred the Doppler velocity difference between these two components directly from the fitted centroid energy difference. Taking into account the effect of projecting a three-dimensional shell to the plane of the detector, we derived average spherical expansion velocities independently for the K_alpha emission of Si, S, Ar, and Fe, and K_beta of Si. We found that the expansion velocities of Si, S, and Ar ejecta of 4700+/-100 km/s are distinctly higher than that obtained from Fe K_alpha emission, 4000+/-300 km/s, which is consistent with segregation of the Fe in the inner ejecta. Combining the observed ejecta velocities with the ejecta proper-motion measurements by Chandra, we derived a distance to the Tycho's SNR of 4+/-1 kpc.

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arXiv2010

Identification of CXOU J171405.7-381031 as a New Magnetar with XMM-Newton

We have observed the 3.8 s pulsar CXOU J171405.7-381031 with XMM-Newton, and discovered the significant dP/dt of 6.40+/-0.14X10^-11 s/s from this source for the first time, with the aid of archival Chandra data. The characteristic age (950 yr), the magnetic field strength (5X10^14 G), and the spin-down luminosity (4.5X10^34 erg/s) derived from P and dP/dt lead us to conclude that CXOU J171405.7-381031 should be identified as a new magnetar. The obtained characteristic age indicates that CXOU J171405.7-381031 is youngest among all known anomalous X-ray pulsars, which is consistent with the age estimation from the thermal X-rays of the associated supernova remnant. The ratio between 2-10 keV luminosity and spin-down luminosity is almost unity, which implies that CXOU J171405.7-381031 is the key source to connect magnetars and traditional radio pulsars.

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arXiv2010

Suzaku Observations of the Supernova Remnant N23 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

X-ray emission from the supernova remnant N23 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is studied using the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) onboard Suzaku. Thanks to superior energy resolution of the XIS in the soft X-ray band, we resolved H-like and He-like Oxygen Kαemission lines from N23 with unprecedentedly high quality, and as a result, identified a new optically thin thermal emission component with a temperature ~0.2 keV, as well as that with a temperature of ~0.5-0.7 keV previously known. This alters the estimate of the ionization timescale net from ~10^{10-11} cm^-3s to >~10^{12} cm^{-3}s. Under the assumption that N23 is still in the Sedov phase, its age evaluated from the newly discovered low temperature component is ~8000 yr, although it is possible that N23 has already moved into the radiative phase. The abundances of the heavy elements are found to be roughly consistent with those of the LMC average, which indicates that the origin of the X-ray emission of N23 is swept-up ambient material, as expected from its ionization timescale.

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arXiv2010

X-ray Evolution of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

During the search for counterparts of very-high-energy gamma-ray sources, we serendipitously discovered large, extended, low surface brightness emission from PWNe around pulsars with the ages up to ~100 kyrs, a discovery made possible by the low and stable background of the Suzaku X-ray satellite. A systematic study of a sample of 8 of these PWNe, together with Chandra datasets, has revealed us that the nebulae keep expanding up to for ~100 kyrs, although time scale of the synchrotron X-ray emission is only ~60 yr for typical magnetic fields of 100 microG. Our result suggests that the accelerated electrons up to ~80 TeV can escape from the PWNe without losing most energies. Moreover, in order to explain the observed correlation between the X-ray size and the pulsar spindwon age, the magnetic field strength in the PWNe must decrease with time.

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arXiv2009

X-Ray Studies of HESS J1809-193 with Suzaku

Suzaku observed the region including HESS J1809-193, one of the TeV unidentified (unID) sources, and confirmed existence of the extended hard X-ray emission previously reported by ASCA, as well as hard X-ray emission from the pulsar PSR J1809-1917 in the region. One-dimensional profile of the diffuse emission is represented with a Gaussian model with the best-fit sigma of 7+-1 arcmin. The diffuse emission extends for at least 21 pc (at the 3sigma level, assuming the distance of 3.5 kpc), and has a hard spectrum with the photon index of Gamma ~1.7. The hard spectrum suggests the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) origin, which is also strengthened by the hard X-ray emission from PSR J1809-1917 itself. Thanks to the low background of Suzaku XIS, we were able to investigate spatial variation of the energy spectrum, but no systematic spectral change in the extended emission is found. These results imply that the X-ray emitting pulsar wind electrons can travel up to 21 pc from the pulsar without noticeable energy loss via synchrotron emission.

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