arXiv subjects

J. Vink

Publications and source records attributed to J. Vink.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

A new radiative cooling curve based on an up to date plasma emission code

This work presents a new plasma cooling curve that is calculated using the SPEX package. We compare our cooling rates to those in previous works, and implement the new cooling function in the grid-adaptive framework `AMRVAC'. Contributions to the cooling rate by the individual elements are given, to allow for the creation of cooling curves tailored to specific abundance requirements. In some situations, it is important to be able to include radiative losses in the hydrodynamics. The enhanced compression ratio can trigger instabilities (such as the Vishniac thin-shell instability) that would otherwise be absent. For gas with temperatures below 10,000 K, the cooling time becomes very long and does not affect the gas on the timescales that are generally of interest for hydrodynamical simulations of circumstellar plasmas. However, above this temperature, a significant fraction of the elements is ionised, and the cooling rate increases by a factor 1000 relative to lower temperature plasmas.

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arXiv2009

The hydrodynamics of the supernova remnant Cas A: The influence of the progenitor evolution on the velocity structure and clumping

There are large differences in the proposed progenitor models for the Cas A SNR. One of these differences is the presence or absence of a Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase of the progenitor star. The mass loss history of the progenitor star strongly affects the shape of the Supernova remnant (SNR). In this paper we investigate whether the progenitor star of Cas A had a WR phase or not and how long it may have lasted. We performed two-dimensional multi-species hydrodynamical simulations of the CSM around the progenitor star for several WR life times, each followed by the interaction of the supernova ejecta with the CSM. We then looked at the influence of the length of the WR phase and compared the results of the simulations with the observations of Cas A. The difference in the structure of the CSM, for models with different WR life times, has a strong impact on the resulting SNR. With an increasing WR life time the reverse shock velocity of the SNR decreases and the range of observed velocities in the shocked material increases. Furthermore, if a WR phase occurs, the remainders of the WR shell will be visible in the resulting SNR. Comparing our results with the observations suggests that the progenitor star of Cas A did not have a WR phase. We also find that the quasi-stationary flocculi (QSF) in Cas A are not consistent with the clumps from a WR shell that have been shocked and accelerated by the interaction with the SN ejecta. We can also conclude that for a SN explosion taking place in a CSM that is shaped by the wind during a short < 15000 yr WR phase, the clumps from the WR shell will be visible inside the SNR.

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arXiv2009

Measuring the cosmic ray acceleration efficiency of a supernova remnant

Cosmic rays are the most energetic particles arriving at earth. Although most of them are thought to be accelerated by supernova remnants, the details of the acceleration process and its efficiency are not well determined. Here we show that the pressure induced by cosmic rays exceeds the thermal pressure behind the northeast shock of the supernova remnant RCW 86, where the X-ray emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from ultra-relativistic electrons. We determined the cosmic-ray content from the thermal Doppler broadening measured with optical spectroscopy, combined with a proper-motion study in X- rays. The measured post-shock proton temperature in combination with the shock velocity does not agree with standard shock heating, implying that >50% of the post-shock pressure is produced by cosmic rays.

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arXiv2009

Evolution of Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Ray Acceleration in Supernova Remnants

Observations show that the magnetic field in young supernova remnants (SNRs) is significantly stronger than can be expected from the compression of the circumstellar medium (CSM) by a factor of four expected for strong blast waves. Additionally, the polarization is mainly radial, which is also contrary to expectation from compression of the CSM magnetic field. Cosmic rays (CRs) may help to explain these two observed features. They can increase the compression ratio to factors well over those of regular strong shocks by adding a relativistic plasma component to the pressure, and by draining the shock of energy when CRs escape from the region. The higher compression ratio will also allow for the contact discontinuity, which is subject to the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability, to reach much further out to the forward shock. This could create a preferred radial polarization of the magnetic field. With an adaptive mesh refinement MHD code (AMRVAC), we simulate the evolution of SNRs with three different configurations of the initial CSM magnetic field, and look at two different equations of state in order to look at the possible influence of a CR plasma component. The spectrum of CRs can be simulated using test particles, of which we also show some preliminary results that agree well with available analytical solutions.

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arXiv2009

Spectral and temporal variations of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125: new XMM-Newton observations

In the past, the isolated, radio-quiet neutron star RX J0720.4-3125 showed variations in the spectral parameters (apparent radius, temperature of the emitting area and equivalent width of the absorption feature) seen in the X-ray spectra, not only during the spin period of 8.39s, but also over time scales of years. New X-ray observations of RX J0720.4-3125 with XMM Newton extend the coverage to about 7.5 years with the latest pointing performed in November 2007. Out of a total of fourteen available EPIC-pn datasets, eleven have been obtained with an identical instrumental setup (full frame read-out mode with thin filter), and are best suited for a comparative investigations of the spectral and timing properties of this enigmatic X-ray pulsar. We analysed the new XMM Newton observations together with archival data in order to follow the spectral and temporal evolution of RX J0720.4-3125 All XMM-Newton data were reduced with the standard XMM-SAS software package. A systematic and consistent data reduction of all these observations was emphasised in order to reduce systematic errors as far as possible. We investigate the phase residuals derived from data from different energy bands using different timing solutions for the spin period evolution and confirm the phase lag between hard and soft photons. The phase shift in the X-ray pulses between hard and soft photons varies with time and changes sign around MJD=52800 days, regardless of the chosen timing solution. The phase residuals[abridge]

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arXiv2008

Evolution of Magnetic Fields in Supernova Remnants

Supernova remnants (SNR) are now widely believed to be a source of cosmic rays (CRs) up to an energy of 1 PeV. The magnetic fields required to accelerate CRs to sufficiently high energies need to be much higher than can result from compression of the circumstellar medium (CSM) by a factor 4, as is the case in strong shocks. Non-thermal synchrotron maps of these regions indicate that indeed the magnetic field is much stronger, and for young SNRs has a dominant radial component while for old SNRs it is mainly toroidal. How these magnetic fields get enhanced, or why the field orientation is mainly radial for young remnants, is not yet fully understood. We use an adaptive mesh refinement MHD code, AMRVAC, to simulate the evolution of supernova remnants and to see if we can reproduce a mainly radial magnetic field in early stages of evolution. We follow the evolution of the SNR with three different configurations of the initial magnetic field in the CSM: an initially mainly toroidal field, a turbulent magnetic field, and a field parallel to the symmetry axis. Although for the latter two topologies a significant radial field component arises at the contact discontinuity due to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, no radial component can be seen out to the forward shock. Ideal MHD appears not sufficient to explain observations. Possibly a higher compression ratio and additional turbulence due to dominant presence of CRs can help us to better reproduce the observations in future studies.

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arXiv2008

On the origin of microturbulence in hot stars

We present results from the first extensive study of convection zones in the envelopes of hot massive stars, which are caused by opacity peaks associated with iron and helium ionization. These convective regions can be located very close to the stellar surface. Recent observations of microturbulence in massive stars from the VLT-Flames survey are in good agreement with our predictions concerning the occurrence and the strength of sub-surface convection in hot stars. We argue further that convection close to the surface may trigger clumping at the base of the stellar wind of massive stars.

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arXiv2008

The Kinematics of Kepler's Supernova Remnant as revealed by Chandra

I determine the expansion of the supernova remnant of SN1604 (Kepler's supernova) based on archival Chandra ACIS-S observations made in 2000 and 2006. The measurements were done in several distinct energy bands, and were made for the remnant as a whole, and for six individual sectors. The average expansion parameter indicates that the remnant expands as $r \propto t^{0.5}$, but there are significant differences in different parts of the remnant: the bright northwestern part expands as $r \propto t^{0.35}$, whereas the rest of the remnant's expansion shows an expansion $r \propto t^{0.6}$. The latter is consistent with an explosion in which the outer part of the ejecta has a negative power law slope for density ($ρ\propto v^{-n}$) of $n=7$, or with an exponential density profile($ρ\propto \exp(-v/v_e)$). The expansion parameter in the southern region, in conjunction with the shock radius, indicate a rather low value (<5E50 erg) for the explosion energy of SN1604 for a distance of 4 kpc. An higher explosion energy is consistent with the results, if the distance is larger. The filament in the eastern part of the remnant, which is dominated by X-ray synchrotron radiation seems to mark a region with a fast shock speed $r \propto t^{0.7}$, corresponding to a shock velocity of v= 4200 km/s, for a distance to SN1604 of 4 kpc. This is consistent with the idea that X-ray synchrotron emission requires shock velocities in excess of ~2000 km/s. The X-ray based expansion measurements reported are consistent with results based on optical and radio measurements, but disagree with previous X-ray measurements based on ROSAT and Einstein observations.

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arXiv2008

XMM-Newton X-ray spectra of the SNR 0509-67.5: data and models

We report on X-ray observations of the supernova remnant 0509-67.5 in the Large Magellanic Cloud with XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. We use the imaging spectroscopy (EPIC) and Reflective Grating Spectrometer (RGS) data to investigate properties of the remnant and its environment. The X-ray spectra were analyzed with SPEX software package. In addition to this we performed a numerical hydrodynamic simulation of the remnant. The EPIC data show prominent Fe K line emission, but the deduced overall amount of iron in the shocked ejecta is low. The data also show that the remnant has an asymmetric ejecta structure: the bright southwest region of the remnant shows an overabundance of metals. The analysis of the RGS spectrum shows that the remnant has a high lines velocity broadening of ~5000 km/s. We found a hydrodynamical model for the remnant with basic hydrodynamical and spectral parameters similar to the observed ones. The data analysis show that the reverse shock just recently reached iron layers of the ejecta. The brightness enhancement in the southwest region could be a sign of an asymmetric explosion or it could be the result of a density enhancement of the interstellar medium. We constructed numerical models which are in good agreement with the observations, with circumstellar density of 3e-25 g/cm^3, age of ~400 years, velocities of ~5000 km/s and an electron to ion temperature ratio of 0.01.

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arXiv2008

Jets as diagnostics of the circumstellar medium and the explosion energetics of supernovae: the case of Cas A

We present hydrodynamical models for the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant and its observed jet / counter-jet system. We include the evolution of the progenitor's circumstellar medium, which is shaped by a slow red supergiant wind that is followed by a fast Wolf-Rayet (WR) wind. The main parameters of the simulations are the duration of the WR phase and the jet energy. We find that the jet is destroyed if the WR phase is sufficiently long and a massive circumstellar shell has formed. We therefore conclude that the WR phase must have been short (a few thousand yr), if present at all. Since the actual jet length of Cas A is not known we derive a lower limit for the jet energy, which is ~10^{48} erg. We discuss the implications for the progenitor of Cas A and the nature of its explosion.

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arXiv2008

Characterizing the non-thermal emission of Cas A

We report on our analysis of the 1 Ms Chandra observation of the supernova remnant Cas A in order to localize, characterize and quantify its non-thermal X-ray emission. More specifically, we investigated whether the X-ray synchrotron emission from the inside of the remnant is from the outward shock, but projected toward the inner ring, or from the inner shell. We tackle this problem by employing a Lucy-Richardson deconvolution technique and measuring spectral indices in the 4.2-6 keV band. We show that most of the continuum emission is coming from an inner ring that coincides with the location of the reverse shock. This inner ring includes filaments, whose X-ray emission has been found to be dominated by X-ray synchrotron emission. The X-ray emission from these filaments, both at the forward shock and from the inner ring, have relatively hard spectra with spectral index > -3.1. The regions emitting hard X-ray continuum contribute about 54% of the total X-ray emission in the 4.2-6 keV. This is lower than suggested by extrapolating the hard X-ray spectrum as measured by BeppoSAX-PDS and INTEGRAL. This can be reconciled by assuming a gradual steepening of the spectrum toward higher energies. We argue that the X-ray synchrotron emission is mainly coming from the Western part of the reverse shock. The reverse shock in the West is almost at rest in our observation frame, corresponding to a relatively high reverse shock velocity of ~6000 km/s in the frame of the freely expanding ejecta.

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arXiv2008

Detection of hot gas in the filament connecting the clusters of galaxies Abell 222 and Abell 223

About half of the baryons in the local Universe are invisible and - according to simulations - their dominant fraction resides in filaments connecting clusters of galaxies in the form of low density gas with temperatures in the range of 10^5<T<10^7 K. The existence of this warm-hot intergalactic medium was never unambiguously proven observationally in X-rays. We probe the low gas densities expected in the large scale structure filaments by observing a filament connecting the massive clusters of galaxies A 222 and A 223 (z=0.21) which has a favorable orientation approximately along our line of sight. This filament has been previously detected using weak lensing data and as an over-density of colour selected galaxies. We analyse X-ray images and spectra obtained in a deep observation (144 ks) of A 222/223 with XMM-Newton. We present here observational evidence of the X-ray emission from the filament connecting the two clusters. We detect the filament in the wavelet decomposed soft band (0.5-2.0 keV) X-ray image with a 5 sigma significance. Following the emission down to 3 sigma significance, the observed filament is approximately 1.2 Mpc wide. The temperature of the gas associated with the filament determined from the spectra is kT=0.91\pm0.25 keV and its emission measure corresponds to a baryon density of (3.4\pm1.3)x10^-5 (l/15Mpc)^-1/2 cm^-3, where l is the length of the filament along the line of sight. This density corresponds to a baryon over-density of approximately 150. The properties of the gas in the filament are consistent with the results of simulations for the densest and hottest parts of the warm-hot intergalactic medium.

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arXiv2007

Possible non-thermal nature of the soft-excess emission in the cluster of galaxies Sersic 159-03

We present an analysis of new Suzaku data and archival data from XMM-Newton of the cluster of galaxies Sersic 159-03, which has a strong soft X-ray excess emission component. The Suzaku observation confirms the presence of the soft excess emission, but it does not confirm the presence of redshifted OVII lines in the cluster. Radial profiles and 2D maps derived from XMM-Newton observations show that the soft excess emission has a strong peak at the position of the central cD galaxy and the maps do not show any significant azimuthal variations. Although the soft excess emission can be fitted equally well with both thermal and non-thermal models, its spatial distribution is neither consistent with the models of intercluster warm-hot filaments, nor with models of clumpy warm intracluster gas associated with infalling groups. Using the data obtained by the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometers we do not confirm the presence of the warm gas in the cluster centre with the expected properties assuming the soft excess is of thermal origin. The observed properties of the soft excess emission are consistent with the non-thermal interpretation. While the high density of relativistic electrons associated with the peak of the soft emission in the cluster centre might have been provided by an active galactic nucleus in the central cD galaxy, the underlying population might have been accelerated in diffuse shocks.

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arXiv2006

XMM-Newton observations of HESS J1813-178 reveal a composite Supernova remnant

We present X-ray and 12CO(J=1-0) observations of the very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray source HESS J1813-178 with the aim of understanding the origin of the gamma-ray emission. Using this dataset we are able to undertake spectral and morphological studies of the X-ray emission from this object with greater precision than previous studies. NANTEN 12CO(J=1-0) data are used to search for correlations of the gamma-ray emission with molecular clouds which could act as target material for gamma-ray production in a hadronic scenario. The NANTEN 12CO(J=1-0) observations show a giant molecular cloud of mass 2.5 10^5 M$_{\sun}$ at a distance of 4 kpc in the vicinity of HESS J1813-178. Even though there is no direct positional coincidence, this giant cloud might have influenced the evolution of the gamma-ray source and its surroundings. The X-ray data show a highly absorbed non-thermal X-ray emitting object coincident with the previously known ASCA source AX J1813-178 showing a compact core and an extended tail towards the north-east, located in the centre of the radio shell-type Supernova remnant (SNR) G12.82-0.2. This central object shows morphological and spectral resemblance to a Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) and we therefore consider that the object is very likely to be a composite SNR. We discuss the scenario in which the gamma-rays originate in the shell of the SNR and the one in which they originate in the central object. We demonstrate, that in order to connect the core X-ray emission to the VHE gamma-ray emission electrons have to be accelerated to energies of at least 1 PeV.

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arXiv2006

A Polarimetric Study of the B[e] star HD 45677

We present new medium-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of HD 45677 in the B and R-bands. A change in polarisation is detected across Halpha, Hbeta and Hgamma confirming that the ionised region around the star is aspherical. (Q,U) points associated with these emission lines occur away from the continuum, defining a polarisation vector which points in the same direction for each of the lines at an average intrinsic polarisation angle of 164 +/- 3 degrees. These data were combined with past photometric and polarimetric data from the literature to investigate any variability. We find that HD 45677 is both photometrically and polarimetrically variable and that these changes are linked. We suggest that these variations may be caused by an aspherical blowout and by deriving a least-squares fit to the B-band polarimetric data in Q-U space, we show that the blowout occurs at an intrinsic polarisation angle of 175 +/- 1 degrees, along the same angle as the proposed geometry of the ionised region.

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arXiv2006

The highly ionized disk wind of GRO J1655-40

Aims: The galactic superluminal microquasar GRO J1655-40 started a new outburst in February 2005, after seven years in quiescence, rising to a high/soft state in March 2005. In this paper we study the X-ray spectra during this rise. Methods: We observed GRO J1655-40 with XMM-Newton, on 27 February 2005, in the low/hard state, and on three consecutive days in March 2005, during the rise of the source to its high/soft state. The EPIC-pn camera was used in the fast-read Burst mode to avoid photon pile-up. Results: First, we contributed to the improvement of the calibration of the EPIC-pn, since the high flux received from the source required some refinements in the correction of the Charge Transfer Efficiency of the camera.Second, we find that the X-ray spectrum of GRO J1655-40 is dominated in the high/soft state by the thermal emission from the accretion disk, with an inner radius of 13-14(D/3.2kpc)km and a maximum temperature of 1.3 keV. Two absorption lines are detected in the EPIC-pn spectra, at 6.7-6.8 and 7.8-8.0 keV, which can be identified either as blended Fe XXV and Fe XXVI K-alpha and K-beta lines, or as blueshifted Fe XXV. We find no orbital dependence on the X-ray properties, which provides an upper limit for the inclination of the system of 73 degr. The RGS spectrometers reveal interstellar absorption features at 17.2AA, 17.5AA (Fe L edges) and 23.54AA (OI K-alpha). Finally, while checking the interstellar origin of the OI line, we find a general correlation of the OI K-alpha line equivalent width with the hydrogen column density using several sources available in the literature.

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arXiv2006

The signature of 44Ti in Cassiopeia A revealed by IBIS/ISGRI on INTEGRAL

We report the detection of both the 67.9 and 78.4 keV 44Sc gamma-ray lines in Cassiopeia A with the INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI instrument. Besides the robustness provided by spectro-imaging observations, the main improvements compared to previous measurements are a clear separation of the two 44Sc lines together with an improved significance of the detection of the hard X-ray continuum up to 100 keV. These allow us to refine the determination of the 44Ti yield and to constrain the nature of the nonthermal continuum emission. By combining COMPTEL, BeppoSAX/PDS and ISGRI measurements, we find a line flux of (2.5 +/- 0.3)*10(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) leading to a synthesized 44Ti mass of 1.6 (+0.6-0.3)*10(-4) solar mass. This high value suggests that Cas A is peculiar in comparison to other young supernova remnants, from which so far no line emission from 44Ti decay has been unambiguously detected.

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arXiv2006

Evidence for precession of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125

The XMM-Newton spectra of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125 obtained over 4.5 years can be described by sinusoidal variations in the inferred blackbody temperature, the size of the emitting area and the depth of the absorption line with a period of 7.1 +/- 0.5 years, which we suggest to be the precession period of the neutron star. Precession of a neutron star with two hot spots of different temperature and size, probably not located exactly in antipodal positions, may account for the variations in the X-ray spectra, changes in the pulsed fraction, shape of the light curve and the phase-lag between soft and hard energy bands observed from RX J0720.4-3125. An independent sinusoidal fit to published and new pulse timing residuals from a coherent analysis covering ~12 years yields a consistent period of 7.7 +/- 0.6 years supporting the precession model.

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