arXiv subjects

Kazuhiro Nakazawa

Publications and source records attributed to Kazuhiro Nakazawa.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

A Hard-to-Soft State Transition of Aquila X-1 Observed with Suzaku

The recurrent soft X-ray transient Aquila X-1 was observed with Suzaku for a gross duration of 79.9 ks, on 2011 October 21 when the object was in a rising phase of an outburst. During the observation, the source exhibited a clear spectral transition from the hard state to the soft state, on a time scale of ~30 ks. Across the transition, the 0.8-10 keV XIS count rate increased by a factor ~3, that of HXD-PIN in 15-60 keV decreased by a similar factor, and the unabsorbed 0.1-100 keV luminosity increased from 3.5 times 10^37 erg/s to 5.1 times 10^37 erg/s. The broadband spectral shape changed continuously, from a power-law like one with a high-energy cutoff to a more convex one. Throughout the transition, the 0.8-60 keV spectra were successfully described with a model consisting of a multi-color blackbody and a Comptonized blackbody, which are considered to arise from a standard accretion disk and a closer vicinity of the neutron star, respectively. All the model parameters were confirmed to change continuously, from those typical in the hard state to those typical of the soft state. More specifically, the inner disk radius decreased from 31 km to 18 km, the effects of Comptonization on the blackbody photons weakened, and the electron temperature of Comptonization decreased from 10 keV to 3 keV. The derived parameters imply that the Comptonizing corona shrinks towards the final soft state, and/or the radial infall velocity of the corona decreases. These results reinforce the view that the soft and hard states of Aql X-1 (and of similar objects) are described by the same "disk plus Comptonized blackbody" model, but with considerably different parameters.

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arXiv2016

NuSTAR observations of the Dwarf Nova GK Persei in 2015: comparison between outburst and quiescent phases

We report on NuSTAR observations of the Intermediate Polar GK Persei which also behaves as a Dwarf Nova. It exhibited a Dwarf Nova outburst in 2015 March-April. The object was observed in 3-79 keV X-rays with NuSTAR, once at the outburst peak, and again in 2015 September during quiescence. The 5-50 keV flux during the outburst was 26 times higher than that during the quiescence. With a multi-temperature emission model and a reflection model, we derived the post-shock temperature as 19.2 +/- 0.7 keV in the outburst, and 38.5 +4.1/-3.6 keV in the quiescence. This temperature difference is considered to reflect changes in the radius at which the accreting matter, forming an accretion disk, is captured by the magnetosphere of the white dwarf (WD). Assuming that this radius scales as the power of -2/7 of the mass accretion rate, and utilizing the two temperature measurements, as well as the standard mass-radius relation of WDs, we determined the WD mass in GK Persei as 0.90 +/- 0.06 solar masses. The magnetic field is estimated as 4*10^5 G.

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arXiv2016

Suzaku Observations of Spectral Variations of the Ultra Luminous X-ray Source Holmberg IX X-1

Observations of the Ultra Luminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg IX X-1 were carried out with Suzaku twice, once on 2012 April 13 and then on 2012 October 24, with exposures of 180 ks and 217 ks, respectively. The source showed a hard power-law shape spectrum with a mild cutoff at $\sim 8$ keV, which is typical of ULXs when they are relatively dim. On both occasions, the 0.6-11 keV spectrum was explained successfully in terms a cool ($\sim 0.2$ keV) multi-color disk blackbody emission model and a thermal Comptonization emission produced by an electron cloud with a relatively low temperature and high optical depth, assuming that a large fraction of the disk-blackbody photons are Comptonized whereas the rest is observed directly. The 0.5-10 keV luminosity was $1.2\times10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in April, and $\sim 14\%$ higher in October. This brightening was accompanied by spectral softening in $\ge 2$ keV, with little changes in the $\le 2$ keV spectral shape. This behavior can be understood if the accretion disk remains unchanged, while the electron cloud covers a variable fraction of the disk. The absorbing column density was consistent with the galactic line-of sight value, and did not vary by more than $1.6\times 10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$. Together with the featureless spectra, these properties may not be reconciled easily with the super-critical accretion scenario of this source.

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arXiv2016

Suzaku and Chandra Observations of CIZA J1700.8$-$3144, a Cluster of Galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance

We present the Chandra and Suzaku observations of 1RXS J170047.8$-$314442, located towards the Galactic bulge, to reveal a wide-band ($0.3$-$10$ keV) X-ray morphology and spectrum of this source. With the Chandra observation, no point source was found at the position of 1RXS J170047.8$-$314442. Alternatively, we revealed the presence of diffuse X-ray emission by the wide-band X-ray image obtained from the Suzaku XIS. Although the X-ray emission had a nearly circular shape with a spatial extent of $\sim 3.5'$, the surface brightness profile was not axisymmetric; a bright spot-like emission was found at $\sim 1'$ away in the north-western direction from the center. The radial profile of the surface brightness, except for this spot-like emission, was reproduced with a single $β$-model; $β$ and the core radius were found to be $1.02$ and $1.51'$, respectively. The X-ray spectrum of the diffuse emission showed an emission line at $\sim 6$ keV, indicating an origin of a thermal plasma. The spectrum was well explained with an absorbed optically-thin thermal plasma model with a temperature of $6.2$ keV and a redshift parameter of $z = 0.14 \pm 0.01$. Hence, the X-ray emission was considered to arise from the hot gas associated with a cluster of galaxies. Our spectroscopic result confirmed the optical identification of 1RXS J170047.8$-$314442 by Kocevski et al. (2007): CIZA J1700.8$-$3144, a member of the cluster catalogue in the Zone of Avoidance. The estimated bolometric X-ray luminosity of $5.9 \times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ was among the lowest with this temperature, suggesting that this cluster is far from relaxed.

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arXiv2016

X-ray and Optical Correlation of Type I Seyfert NGC 3516 Studied with Suzaku and Japanese Ground-Based Telescopes

From 2013 April to 2014 April, we performed an X-ray and optical simultaneous monitoring of the type 1.5 Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516. It employed Suzaku, and 5 Japanese ground-based telescopes, the Pirka, Kiso Schmidt, Nayuta, MITSuME, and the Kanata telescopes. The Suzaku observations were conducted seven times with various intervals ranging from days, weeks, to months, with an exposure of $\sim50$ ksec each. The optical $B$-band observations not only covered those of Suzaku almost simultaneously, but also followed the source as frequently as possible. As a result, NGC 3516 was found in its faint phase with the 2-10 keV flux of $0.21-2.70 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. The 2-45 keV X-ray spectra were composed of a dominant variable hard power-law continuum with a photon index of $\sim1.7$, and a non-relativistic reflection component with a prominent Fe-K$α$ emission line. Producing the $B$-band light curve by differential image photometry, we found that the $B$-band flux changed by $\sim2.7 \times 10^{-11}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, which is comparable to the X-ray variation, and detected a significant flux correlation between the hard power-law component in X-rays and the $B$-band radiation, for the first time in NGC 3516. By examining their correlation, we found that the X-ray flux preceded that of $B$ band by $2.0^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ days ($1σ$ error). Although this result supports the X-ray reprocessing model, the derived lag is too large to be explained by the standard view which assumes a "lamppost"-type X-ray illuminator located near a standard accretion disk. Our results are better explained by assuming a hot accretion flow and a truncated disk.

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arXiv2016

The New Primary X-ray Component Confirmed in the Seyfert I Galaxy IC4329A

The bright and highly-variable Seyfert I Active Galactic Nucleus, IC4329A, was observed with Suzaku 5 times in 2007 August with intervals of ~ 5 days, and a net exposure of 24-31 ks each. Another longer observation was carried out in 2012 August with a net exposure of 118 ks. In the 6 observations, the source was detected in 2-45 keV with average 2-10 keV fluxes of $(0.67-1.2)\times10^{-10}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. The intensity changed by a factor of 2 among the 5 observations in 2007, and 1.5 within the 2012 observation. Difference spectra among these observations revealed that the variability of IC4329A was carried mainly by a power-law component with a photon index $Γ\sim2.0$. However, in addition to this primary component and the associated reflection, the broad-band Suzaku data required another, harder, and less variable component with $Γ\sim1.4$. The presence of this new continuum was also confirmed by analyzing the same 6 data sets through the spectral decomposition technique developed by Noda et al. 2013a. This $Γ\sim1.4$ continuum is considered to be a new primary component that has not been recognized in the spectra of IC4329A so far, although it was recently identified in those of several other Seyfert I galaxies (Noda et al. 2013a, 2014).

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arXiv2016

Suzaku Observation of the High-Inclination Binary EXO 0748-676 in the Hard State

Utilizing an archived Suzaku data acquired on 2007 December 25 for 46 ks, X-ray spectroscopic properties of the dipping and eclipsing low-mass X-ray binary EXO 0748$-$676 were studied. At an assumed distance of 7.1 kpc, the data gave a persistent unabsorbed luminosity of $3.4\times10^{36}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ in 0.6 $-$ 55 keV. The source was in a relatively bright low/hard state, wherein the 0.6 $-$ 55 keV spectrum can be successfully explained by a "double-seed" Comptonization model, incorporating a common corona with an electron temperature of $\sim13$ keV. The seed photons are thought to be supplied from both the neutron star surface, and a cooler truncated disk. Compared to a sample of non-dipping low-mass X-ray binaries in the low/hard state, the spectrum is subject to stronger Comptonization, with a relatively larger Comptonizing $y$-parameter of $\sim1.4$ and a larger coronal optical depth of $\sim5$. This result, when attributed to the high inclination of EXO 0748$-$676, suggests that the Comptonizing corona may elongate along the disk plane, and give a longer path for the seed photons when viewed from edge-on inclinations.

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arXiv2016

Suzaku observation of a high entropy cluster Abell 548W

Abell 548W, one of the galaxy clusters located in the Abell 548 region, has about an order of magnitude lower X-ray luminosity compared to ordinal clusters in view of the well known intracluster medium (ICM) temperature vs X-ray luminosity (kT-L_X) relation. The cluster hosts a pair of diffuse radio sources to the north west and north, both about 10' apart from the cluster center. They are candidate radio relics, frequently associated with merging clusters. A Suzaku deep observation with exposure of 84.4 ks was performed to search signatures for merging in this cluster. The XIS detectors successfully detected the ICM emission out to 16' from the cluster center. The temperature is ~3.6 keV around its center, and ~2 keV at the outermost regions. The hot region (~6 keV) aside the relic candidates shifted to the cluster center reported by XMM-Newton was not seen in the Suzaku data, although its temperature of 3.6 keV itself is higher than the average temperature of 2.5 keV around the radio sources. In addition, a signature of a cool (kT ~0.9 keV) component was found around the north west source. A marginal temperature jump at its outer-edge was also found, consistent with the canonical idea of shock acceleration origin of the radio relics. The cluster has among the highest central entropy of ~400 keV cm^2 and is one of the so-called low surface brightness clusters. Taking into account the fact that its shape itself is relatively circular and smooth and also its temperature structure is nearly flat, possible scenarios for merging is discussed.

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arXiv2016

Discovery of a 36 ks Phase Modulation in the Hard X-ray Pulses from the Magnetar 1E 1547.0$-$5408

The Suzaku data of the highly variable magnetar 1E 1547.0$-$5408, obtained during the 2009 January activity, were reanalyzed. The 2.07 s pulsation of the 15--40 keV emission detected with the HXD was found to be phase modulated, with a period of $36.0^{+4.5}_{-2.5}$ ks and an amplitude of $0.52 \pm 0.14$ s. The modulation waveform is suggested to be more square-wave like rather than sinusoidal. While the effect was confirmed with the 10--14 keV XIS data, the modulation amplitude decreased towards lower energies, becoming consistent with 0 below 4 keV. After the case of 4U 0142+61, this makes the 2nd example of this kind of behavior detected from magnetars. The effect can be interpreted as a manifestation of free precession of this magnetar, which is suggested to be oblately deformed under the presence of strong toroidal field of $\sim 10^{16}$ G.

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arXiv2016

Galaxy Infall by Interacting with its Environment: a Comprehensive Study of 340 Galaxy Clusters

To study systematically the evolution on the angular extents of the galaxy, ICM, and dark matter components in galaxy clusters, we compiled the optical and X-ray properties of a sample of 340 clusters with redshifts $<0.5$, based on all the available data with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and {\it Chandra}/{\it XMM-Newton}. For each cluster, the member galaxies were determined primarily with photometric redshift measurements. The radial ICM mass distribution, as well as the total gravitational mass distribution, were derived from a spatially-resolved spectral analysis of the X-ray data. When normalizing the radial profile of galaxy number to that of the ICM mass, the relative curve was found to depend significantly on the cluster redshift; it drops more steeply towards outside in lower redshift subsamples. The same evolution is found in the galaxy-to-total mass profile, while the ICM-to-total mass profile varies in an opposite way. We interpret that the galaxies, the ICM, and the dark matter components had similar angular distributions when a cluster was formed, while the galaxies travelling interior of the cluster have continuously fallen towards the center relative to the other components, and the ICM has slightly expanded relative to the dark matter although it suffers strong radiative loss. This cosmological galaxy infall, accompanied by an ICM expansion, can be explained by considering that the galaxies interact strongly with the ICM while they are moving through it. The interaction is considered to create a large energy flow of $10^{44-45}$ erg $\rm s^{-1}$ per cluster from the member galaxies to their environment, which is expected to continue over cosmological time scales.

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arXiv2015

The first demonstration of the concept of "narrow-FOV Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton camera"

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD), to be deployed onboard the {\it ASTRO-H} satellite, has been developed to provide the highest sensitivity observations of celestial sources in the energy band of 60-600~keV by employing a detector concept which uses a Compton camera whose field-of-view is restricted by a BGO shield to a few degree (narrow-FOV Compton camera). In this concept, the background from outside the FOV can be heavily suppressed by constraining the incident direction of the gamma ray reconstructed by the Compton camera to be consistent with the narrow FOV. We, for the first time, demonstrate the validity of the concept using background data taken during the thermal vacuum test and the low-temperature environment test of the flight model of SGD on ground. We show that the measured background level is suppressed to less than 10\% by combining the event rejection using the anti-coincidence trigger of the active BGO shield and by using Compton event reconstruction techniques. More than 75\% of the signals from the field-of-view are retained against the background rejection, which clearly demonstrates the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio. The estimated effective area of 22.8~cm$^2$ meets the mission requirement even though not all of the operational parameters of the instrument have been fully optimized yet.

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arXiv2015

The Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton camera of the ASTRO-H Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD)

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of the instrument payloads onboard ASTRO-H, and will cover a wide energy band (60--600 keV) at a background level 10 times better than instruments currently in orbit. The SGD achieves low background by combining a Compton camera scheme with a narrow field-of-view active shield. The Compton camera in the SGD is realized as a hybrid semiconductor detector system which consists of silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) sensors. The design of the SGD Compton camera has been finalized and the final prototype, which has the same configuration as the flight model, has been fabricated for performance evaluation. The Compton camera has overall dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm x 12 cm, consisting of 32 layers of Si pixel sensors and 8 layers of CdTe pixel sensors surrounded by 2 layers of CdTe pixel sensors. The detection efficiency of the Compton camera reaches about 15% and 3% for 100 keV and 511 keV gamma rays, respectively. The pixel pitch of the Si and CdTe sensors is 3.2 mm, and the signals from all 13312 pixels are processed by 208 ASICs developed for the SGD. Good energy resolution is afforded by semiconductor sensors and low noise ASICs, and the obtained energy resolutions with the prototype Si and CdTe pixel sensors are 1.0--2.0 keV (FWHM) at 60 keV and 1.6--2.5 keV (FWHM) at 122 keV, respectively. This results in good background rejection capability due to better constraints on Compton kinematics. Compton camera energy resolutions achieved with the final prototype are 6.3 keV (FWHM) at 356 keV and 10.5 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV, respectively, which satisfy the instrument requirements for the SGD Compton camera (better than 2%). Moreover, a low intrinsic background has been confirmed by the background measurement with the final prototype.

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arXiv2015

A Study of Active Shielding Optimized for 1-80 keV Wide-Band X-ray Detector in Space

Active shielding is an effective technique to reduce background signals in hard X-ray detectors and to enable observing darker sources with high sensitivity in space. Usually the main detector is covered with some shield detectors made of scintillator crystals such as BGO (Bi$_4$Ge$_3$O$_{12}$), and the background signals are filtered out using anti-coincidence among them. Japanese X-ray observing satellites "Suzaku" and "ASTRO-H" employed this technique in their hard X-ray instruments observing at > 10 keV. In the next generation X-ray satellites, such as the NGHXT proposal, a single hybrid detector is expected to cover both soft (1-10 keV) and hard (> 10 keV) X-rays for effectiveness. However, present active shielding is not optimized for the soft X-ray band, 1-10 keV. For example, Bi and Ge, which are contained in BGO, have their fluorescence emission lines around 10 keV. These lines appear in the background spectra obtained by ASTRO-H Hard X-ray Imager, which are non-negligible in its observation energy band of 5-80 keV. We are now optimizing the design of active shields for both soft and hard X-rays at the same time. As a first step, we utilized a BGO crystal as a default material, and measured the L lines of Bi and K lines of Ge from it using the X-ray SOIPIX, "XRPIX".

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arXiv2015

Discovery of a nearby early-phase major cluster merger CIZA J1358.9-4750

CIZA J1358.9-4750 is a nearby (z = 0.074) pair of clusters of galaxies located close to the Galactic plane. It consists of two X-Ray extended humps at north-west and south-east separated by 14 arcmin (~ 1.2 Mpc), and an X-Ray bright bridge-like structure in between. With Suzaku, the south-east hump was shown to have a temperature of 5.6 keV and the north-west one 4.6 keV. Neither humps exhibit significant central cool component. The bridge region has a temperature higher than 9 keV at the maximum, and this hot region is distributed almost orthogonal to the bridge axis in agreement with the shock heating seen in numerical simulations at an early phase of a head-on major merger. This resemblance is supported by good positional coincidence between the X-Ray peaks and cD galaxies associated with each cluster. In a short exposure XMM-Newton image, a significant intensity jump was found at a position where the Suzaku-measured temperature exhibits a steep gradient. These properties indicate the presence of a shock discontinuity. The Mach number is estimated to be 1.32 from the temperature difference across the identified shock front, which gives the colliding velocity of approximately 1800 km/s. From optical redshifts of the member galaxies, the two clusters are indicated to be merging nearly on the sky plane. Thus, CIZA J1358.9-4750 is considered as a valuable nearby example of early-phase merger with a clear shock feature.

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arXiv2014

Suzaku Studies of the Central Engine in the Typical Type I Seyfert NGC 3227: Detection of Multiple Primary X-ray Continua with Distinct Properties

The type I Seyfert galaxy NGC 3227 was observed by Suzaku six times in 2008, with intervals of $\sim1$ week and net exposures of $\sim50$ ksec each. Among the six observations, the source varied by nearly an order of magnitude, being brightest in the 1st observation with a 2-10 keV luminosity of $1.2\times10^{42}$~erg~s$^{-1}$, while faintest in the 4th with $2.9\times10^{41}$~erg~s$^{-1}$. As it became fainter, the continuum in a 2-45 keV band became harder, while a narrow Fe-K$α$ emission line, detected on all occasions at 6.4 keV of the source rest frame, remained approximately constant in the photon flux. Through a method of variability-assisted broad-band spectroscopy (e.g., Noda et al. 2013), the 2-45 keV spectrum of NGC 3227 was decomposed into three distinct components. One is a relatively soft power-law continuum with a photon index of $\sim 2.3$, weakly absorbed and highly variable on time scales of $\sim5$ ksec; it was observed only when the source was above a threshold luminosity of $\sim6.6 \times10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ (in 2-10 keV), and was responsible for further source brightening beyond. Another is a harder and more absorbed continuum with a photon index of $\sim 1.6$, which persisted through the six observations and varied slowly on time scales of a few weeks by a factor of $\sim2$. This component, carrying a major fraction of the broad-band emission when the source is below the threshold luminosity, is considered as an additional primary emission. The last one is a reflection component with the narrow iron line, produced at large distances from the central black hole.

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arXiv2014

Suzaku Discovery of a Slowly Varying Hard X-ray Continuum from the Type I Seyfert Galaxy NGC 3516

The bright type I Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516 was observed by {\it Suzaku} twice, in 2005 October 12--15 and 2009 October 28--November 2, for a gross time coverage of 242 and 544 ksec and a net exposure of 134 and 255 ksec, respectively. The 2--10 keV luminosity was $2.8 \times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in 2005, and $1.6 \times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in 2009. The 1.4--1.7 keV and 2--10 keV count rates both exhibited peak-to-peak variations by a factor of $\sim2$ in 2005, while $\sim 4$ in 2009. In either observation, the 15--45 keV count rate was less variable. The 2--10 keV spectrum in 2005 was significantly more convex than that in 2009. Through a count-count-plot technique, the 2--45 keV signals in both data were successfully decomposed in a model-independent way into two distinct broadband components. One is a variable emission with a featureless spectral shape, and the other is a non-varying hard component accompanied by a prominent Fe-K emission line at 6.33 keV (6.40 keV in the rest frame). The former was fitted successfully by an absorbed power-law model, while the latter requires a new hard continuum in addition to a reflection component from distant materials. The spectral and variability differences between the two observations are mainly attributed to long-term changes of this new hard continuum, which was stable on time scales of several hundreds ksec.

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arXiv2014

Possible Evidence for Free Precession of a Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star in the Magnetar 4U 0142+61

Magnetars are a special type of neutron stars, considered to have extreme dipole magnetic fields reaching ~1e+11 T. The magnetar 4U 0142+61, one of prototypes of this class, was studied in broadband X-rays (0.5-70 keV) with the Suzaku observatory. In hard X-rays (15-40 keV), its 8.69 sec pulsations suffered slow phase modulations by +/-0.7 sec, with a period of ~15 hours. When this effect is interpreted as free precession of the neutron star, the object is inferred to deviate from spherical symmetry by ~1.6e-4 in its moments of inertia. This deformation, when ascribed to magnetic pressure, suggests a strong toroidal magnetic field, ~1e+12 T, residing inside the object. This provides one of the first observational approaches towards toroidal magnetic fields of magnetars.

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arXiv2014

Discovery of an Outstanding Disk in the cD Galaxy of the Hydra A Cluster

The central cD galaxy of the Hydra A cluster has one of the most powerful active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the nearby Universe (z <0.2). We report on the discovery of a dust lane in the cD galaxy using Subaru telescope. The i'-band image shows the existence of a dark band of the size of 3.6"x 0.7" (4 kpc x 0.8 kpc), which appears to be quite similar to the dust lane observed in Centaurus A. The morphology indicates that the cold disk that seen as the dust lane is almost edge-on and rotates around the AGN. Since the minor axis of the dust lane is nearly parallel to the radio jets emerging from the AGN, the disk is probably feeding its gas into the central black hole. From the absorption, we estimate the hydrogen column density of the lane is N_H=2.0 x 10^21 cm^-2, and the mass of the disk is ~8 x 10^7 M_sun. The column density is consistent with constraints obtained from Chandra X-ray observations. The age of the disk is >~ 4 x 10^7 yr. The position angle of the disk and the galaxy's photometric axis are misaligned, which may imply that the cold gas in the disk is brought via galaxy mergers. Our observations may indicate that the supply of cold gas by galaxy mergers is required for the most intensive feedback from AGNs.

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