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Michael Loewenstein

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Loewenstein.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Outflowing photoionized plasma in Circinus X-1 using the high-resolution X-ray spectrometer Resolve onboard XRISM and the radiative transfer code cloudy

High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is a key to understanding the mass inflow and outflow of compact objects. Spectral lines carry information about the ionization, density, and velocity structures through their intensity ratios and profiles. They are formed in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions under the intense radiation field from the compact objects, thus radiative transfer (RT) calculation is a requisite for proper interpretations. We present such a study for a low-mass X-ray binary, Circinus X-1, from which the P Cygni profile was discovered using the X-ray grating spectrometer onboard Chandra. We observed the source using the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard XRISM at an orbital phase of 0.93-0.97 and revealed many spectral features unidentified before; the higher series transitions (n to 1; n > 2) of highly-ionized (H- and He-like) S, Ca, Ar, and Fe in emission and absorption, the Fe Kα and K\b{eta} inner-shell excitation absorption of mildly-ionized (O- to Li-like) Fe, and resolved fine-structure level transitions in the Fe Lyα and Heα complexes. They blend with each other at different velocity shifts on top of apparently variable continuum emission that changed its flux by an order of magnitude within a 70 ks telescope time. Despite such complexity in the observed spectra, most of them can be explained by a simple model consisting of the photoionized plasma outflowing at ~300 km s-1 and the variable blocking material in the line of sight of the incident continuum emission from the accretion disk. We demonstrate this with the aid of the RT code cloudy for the line ratio diagnostics and spectral fitting. We further constrain the physical parameters of the outflow and argue that the outflow is launched close to the outer edge of the accretion disk and can be driven radiatively by being assisted by the line force calculated using the RT simulation.

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Millihertz Oscillations Near the Innermost Orbit of a Supermassive Black Hole

Recent discoveries from time-domain surveys are defying our expectations for how matter accretes onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The increased rate of short-timescale, repetitive events around SMBHs, including the newly-discovered quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs), are garnering further interest in stellar-mass companions around SMBHs and the progenitors to mHz frequency gravitational wave events. Here we report the discovery of a highly significant mHz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) in an actively accreting SMBH, 1ES 1927+654, which underwent a major optical, UV, and X-ray outburst beginning in 2018. The QPO was first detected in 2022 with a roughly 18-minute period, corresponding to coherent motion on scales of less than 10 gravitational radii, much closer to the SMBH than typical QPEs. The period decreased to 7.1 minutes over two years with a decelerating period evolution ($\ddot{P} > 0$). This evolution has never been seen in SMBH QPOs or high-frequency QPOs in stellar mass black holes. Models invoking orbital decay of a stellar-mass companion struggle to explain the period evolution without stable mass transfer to offset angular momentum losses, while the lack of a direct analog to stellar mass black hole QPOs means that many instability models cannot explain all of the observed properties of the QPO in 1ES 1927+654. Future X-ray monitoring will test these models, and if it is a stellar-mass orbiter, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) should detect its low-frequency gravitational wave emission.

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Container-Based Pre-Pipeline Data Processing on HPC for XRISM

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is the 7th Japanese X-ray observatory, whose development and operation are in collaboration with universities and research institutes in Japan, U.S., and Europe, including JAXA, NASA, and ESA. The telemetry data downlinked from the satellite are reduced to scientific products by the pre-pipeline (PPL) and pipeline (PL) software running on standard Linux virtual machines on the JAXA and NASA sides, respectively. We ported the PPL to the JAXA "TOKI-RURI" high-performance computing (HPC) system capable of completing $\simeq 160$ PPL processes within 24 hours by utilizing the container platform of Singularity and its "--bind" option. In this paper, we briefly show the data processing in XRISM and present our porting strategy of PPL to the HPC environment in detail.

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Lense-Thirring Precession after a Supermassive Black Hole Disrupts a Star

An accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) after it disrupts a star is expected to be initially misaligned with respect to the black hole's equatorial plane. This misalignment induces relativistic torques (the Lense-Thirring effect) on the disk, causing the disk to precess at early times, while at late times the disk aligns with the black hole and precession terminates. Here, using high-cadence X-ray monitoring observations of a TDE, we report the discovery of strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations from a TDE. These X-ray modulations are separated by 17.0$^{+1.2}_{-2.4}$ days and persist for roughly 130 days during the early phase of the TDE. Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion flow can produce this X-ray variability, but other physical mechanisms, such as the radiation-pressure instability, cannot be ruled out. Assuming typical TDE parameters, i.e., a solar-like star with the resulting disk extending at-most to so-called circularization radius, and that the disk precesses as a rigid body, we constrain the disrupting black hole's dimensionless spin parameter to be 0.05<|a|<0.5.

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UV/Optical disk reverberation lags despite a faint X-ray corona in the AGN Mrk 335

We present the first results from a 100-day Swift, NICER and ground-based X-ray/UV/optical reverberation mapping campaign of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Mrk 335, when it was in an unprecedented low X-ray flux state. Despite dramatic suppression of the X-ray variability, we still observe UV/optical lags as expected from disk reverberation. Moreover, the UV/optical lags are consistent with archival observations when the X-ray luminosity was >10 times higher. Interestingly, both low- and high-flux states reveal UV/optical lags that are 6-11 times longer than expected from a thin disk. These long lags are often interpreted as due to contamination from the broad line region, however the u band excess lag (containing the Balmer jump from the diffuse continuum) is less prevalent than in other AGN. The Swift campaign showed a low X-ray-to-optical correlation (similar to previous campaigns), but NICER and ground-based monitoring continued for another two weeks, during which the optical rose to the highest level of the campaign, followed ~10 days later by a sharp rise in X-rays. While the low X-ray countrate and relatively large systematic uncertainties in the NICER background make this measurement challenging, if the optical does lead X-rays in this flare, this indicates a departure from the zeroth-order reprocessing picture. If the optical flare is due to an increase in mass accretion rate, this occurs on much shorter than the viscous timescale. Alternatively, the optical could be responding to an intrinsic rise in X-rays that is initially hidden from our line-of-sight.

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XSLIDE (X-Ray Spectral Line IDentifier and Explorer): a quick-look tool for XRISM

We present XSLIDE (X-Ray Spectral Line IDentifier and Explorer), a graphical user interface that has been designed as a quick-look tool for the upcoming X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). XSLIDE is a simple and user-friendly application that allows for the interactive plotting of spectra from XRISM's Resolve instrument without requiring the selection of models for forward-fitting. XSLIDE performs common tasks such as rebinning, continuum fitting, automatically detecting lines, assigning detected lines to known atomic transitions, spectral diagnostics, and more. It is expected that XSLIDE will allow XRISM's scientific investigators to rapidly examine many spectra to find those which contain spectral lines of particular interest, and it will also allow astronomers from outside the field of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy to easily interact with XRISM data.

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Evolution of a Relativistic Outflow and X-ray Corona in the Extreme Changing-Look AGN 1ES 1927+654

1ES 1927+654 is a paradigm-defying AGN and one of the most peculiar X-ray nuclear transients. In early 2018, this well-known AGN underwent a changing-look event, in which broad optical emission lines appeared and the optical flux increased. Yet, by July 2018, the X-ray flux had dropped by over two orders of magnitude, indicating a dramatic change to the inner accretion flow. With three years of observations with NICER, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR, we present the X-ray evolution of 1ES 1927+654, which can be broken into three phases-(1) an early super-Eddington phase with rapid variability in X-ray luminosity and spectral parameters, (2) a stable super-Eddington phase at the peak X-ray luminosity, and (3) a steady decline back to the pre-outburst luminosity and spectral parameters. For the first time, we witnessed the formation of the X-ray corona, as the X-ray spectrum transitioned from thermally-dominated to primarily Comptonized. We also track the evolution of the prominent, broad 1 keV feature in the early X-ray spectra and show that this feature can be modeled with blueshifted reflection (z = -0.33) from a single-temperature blackbody irradiating spectrum using xillverTDE, a new flavor of the xillver models. Thus, we propose that the 1 keV feature could arise from reflected emission off the base of an optically thick outflow from a geometrically thick, super-Eddington inner accretion flow, connecting the inner accretion flow with outflows launched during extreme accretion events (e.g. tidal disruption events). Lastly, we compare 1ES 1927+654 to other nuclear transients and discuss applications of xillverTDE to super-Eddington accretors.

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A NICER View of the Massive Pulsar PSR J0740+6620 Informed by Radio Timing and XMM-Newton Spectroscopy

We report on Bayesian estimation of the radius, mass, and hot surface regions of the massive millisecond pulsar PSR J0740$+$6620, conditional on pulse-profile modeling of Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray Timing Instrument (NICER XTI) event data. We condition on informative pulsar mass, distance, and orbital inclination priors derived from the joint NANOGrav and CHIME/Pulsar wideband radio timing measurements of arXiv:2104.00880. We use XMM European Photon Imaging Camera spectroscopic event data to inform our X-ray likelihood function. The prior support of the pulsar radius is truncated at 16 km to ensure coverage of current dense matter models. We assume conservative priors on instrument calibration uncertainty. We constrain the equatorial radius and mass of PSR J0740$+$6620 to be $12.39_{-0.98}^{+1.30}$ km and $2.072_{-0.066}^{+0.067}$ M$_{\odot}$ respectively, each reported as the posterior credible interval bounded by the 16% and 84% quantiles, conditional on surface hot regions that are non-overlapping spherical caps of fully-ionized hydrogen atmosphere with uniform effective temperature; a posteriori, the temperature is $\log_{10}(T$ [K]$)=5.99_{-0.06}^{+0.05}$ for each hot region. All software for the X-ray modeling framework is open-source and all data, model, and sample information is publicly available, including analysis notebooks and model modules in the Python language. Our marginal likelihood function of mass and equatorial radius is proportional to the marginal joint posterior density of those parameters (within the prior support) and can thus be computed from the posterior samples.

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Detailed Design of the Science Operations for the XRISM mission

XRISM is an X-ray astronomical mission by the JAXA, NASA, ESA and other international participants, that is planned for launch in 2022 (Japanese fiscal year), to quickly restore high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical objects. To enhance the scientific outputs of the mission, the Science Operations Team (SOT) is structured independently from the instrument teams and the Mission Operations Team. The responsibilities of the SOT are divided into four categories: 1) guest observer program and data distributions, 2) distribution of analysis software and the calibration database, 3) guest observer support activities, and 4) performance verification and optimization activities. As the first step, lessons on the science operations learned from past Japanese X-ray missions are reviewed, and 15 kinds of lessons are identified. Among them, a) the importance of early preparation of the operations from the ground stage, b) construction of an independent team for science operations separate from the instrument development, and c) operations with well-defined duties by appointed members are recognized as key lessons. Then, the team structure and the task division between the mission and science operations are defined; the tasks are shared among Japan, US, and Europe and are performed by three centers, the SOC, SDC, and ESAC, respectively. The SOC is designed to perform tasks close to the spacecraft operations, such as spacecraft planning, quick-look health checks, pre-pipeline processing, etc., and the SDC covers tasks regarding data calibration processing, maintenance of analysis tools, etc. The data-archive and user-support activities are covered both by the SOC and SDC. Finally, the science-operations tasks and tools are defined and prepared before launch.

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An Empirical Background Model for the NICER X-ray Timing Instrument

NICER has a comparatively low background rate, but it is highly variable, and its spectrum must be predicted using measurements unaffected by the science target. We describe an empirical, three-parameter model based on observations of seven pointing directions that are void of detectable sources. An examination of 3556 good time intervals (GTIs), averaging 570 s, yields a median rate (0.4-12 keV; 50 detectors) of 0.87 c/s, but in 5 percent (1 percent) of cases, the rate exceeds 10 (300) c/s. Model residuals persist at 20-30 percent of the initial rate for the brightest GTIs, implying one or more missing model parameters. Filtering criteria are given to flag GTIs likely to have unsatisfactory background predictions. With such filtering, we estimate a detection limit, 1.20 c/s (3 sigma, single GTI) at 0.4-12 keV, equivalent to 3.6e-12 erg/cm^2/s for a Crab-like spectrum. The corresponding limit for soft X-ray sources is 0.51 c/s at 0.3-2.0 keV, or 4.3e-13 erg/cm^2/s for a 100 eV blackbody. Faint-source filtering selects 85 percent of the background GTIs, and higher rates are expected for targets scheduled more favorably. An application of the model to 1 s timescale makes it possible to distinguish source flares from possible surges in the background.

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Rapid accretion state transitions following the tidal disruption event AT2018fyk

Following a tidal disruption event (TDE), the accretion rate can evolve from quiescent to near-Eddington levels and back over months - years timescales. This provides a unique opportunity to study the formation and evolution of the accretion flow around supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We present two years of multi-wavelength monitoring observations of the TDE AT2018fyk at X-ray, UV, optical and radio wavelengths. We identify three distinct accretion states and two state transitions between them. These appear remarkably similar to the behaviour of stellar-mass black holes in outburst. The X-ray spectral properties show a transition from a soft (thermal-dominated) to a hard (power-law dominated) spectral state around L$_{\rm bol} \sim $few $ \times 10^{-2}$ L$_{\rm Edd}$, and the strengthening of the corona over time $\sim$100--200 days after the UV/optical peak. Contemporaneously, the spectral energy distribution (in particular, the UV-to-X-ray spectral slope $α_{ox}$) shows a pronounced softening as the outburst progresses. The X-ray timing properties also show a marked change, initially dominated by variability at long ($>$day) timescales while a high frequency ($\sim$10$^{-3}$ Hz) component emerges after the transition into the hard state. At late times ($\sim$500 days after peak), a second accretion state transition occurs, from the hard into the quiescent state, as identified by the sudden collapse of the bolometric (X-ray+UV) emission to levels below 10$^{-3.4}$ L$_{\rm Edd}$. Our findings illustrate that TDEs can be used to study the scale (in)variance of accretion processes in individual SMBHs. Consequently, they provide a new avenue to study accretion states over seven orders of magnitude in black hole mass, removing limitations inherent to commonly used ensemble studies.

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1ES 1927+654: An AGN Caught Changing Look on a Timescale of Months

We study the sudden optical and ultraviolet (UV) brightening of 1ES 1927+654, which until now was known as a narrow-line active galactic nucleus (AGN). 1ES 1927+654 was part of the small and peculiar class of "true Type-2" AGN, which lack broad emission lines and line-of-sight obscuration. Our high-cadence spectroscopic monitoring captures the appearance of a blue, featureless continuum, followed several weeks later by the appearance of broad Balmer emission lines. This timescale is generally consistent with the expected light travel time between the central engine and the broad-line emission region in (persistent) broad-line AGN. Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopy reveals no evidence for broad UV emission lines (e.g., CIV1549, CIII]1909, MgII2798), probably owing to dust in the broad-line emission region. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case where the lag between the change in continuum and in broad-line emission of a "changing-look" AGN has been temporally resolved. The nature and timescales of the photometric and spectral evolution disfavor both a change in line-of-sight obscuration and a change of the overall rate of gas inflow as driving the drastic spectral transformations seen in this AGN. Although the peak luminosity and timescales are consistent with those of tidal disruption events seen in inactive galaxies, the spectral properties are not. The X-ray emission displays a markedly different behavior, with frequent flares on timescales of hours to days, and will be presented in a companion publication.

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The Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite

Much of the baryonic matter in the Universe, including the most active and luminous sources, are best studied in the X-ray band. Key advances in X-ray optics and detectors have paved the way for the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS), a Probe-class mission that is a major improvement over Chandra, which has generated a steady stream of important discoveries for the past 2 decades. AXIS can be launched in the late 2020s and will transform our understanding in several major areas of astrophysics, including the growth and fueling of supermassive black holes, galaxy formation and evolution, the microphysics of cosmic plasmas, the time-variable universe, and a wide variety of cutting-edge studies. Relative to Chandra, the AXIS PSF is nearly twice as sharp on-axis; its field of view for subarcsecond imaging 70 times larger by area; its effective area at 1 keV is 10 times larger. The low-Earth orbit ensures a low and stable detector background, resulting in 50 times greater sensitivity than Chandra for extended sources. AXIS has a rapid repointing response with operations similar to Swift, but is 100 times more sensitive for time-domain science. These capabilities open up a vast discovery space and complement the next generation of astronomical observatories. A high-spectral-resolution mission (Athena) operating at the same time as a high-angular-resolution mission (AXIS) greatly increases the range of scientific discovery. AXIS will use lightweight X-ray optics made of thin single-crystal silicon mirrors developed at NASA Goddard. The detector array builds on a long legacy of X-ray CCD and provides improved photon localization, much faster readout time, and broader energy band. The estimated mission costs are consistent with the $1B Probe mission cost guideline.

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STROBE-X: X-ray Timing and Spectroscopy on Dynamical Timescales from Microseconds to Years

We present the Spectroscopic Time-Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy X-rays (STROBE-X), a probe-class mission concept selected for study by NASA. It combines huge collecting area, high throughput, broad energy coverage, and excellent spectral and temporal resolution in a single facility. STROBE-X offers an enormous increase in sensitivity for X-ray spectral timing, extending these techniques to extragalactic targets for the first time. It is also an agile mission capable of rapid response to transient events, making it an essential X-ray partner facility in the era of time-domain, multi-wavelength, and multi-messenger astronomy. Optimized for study of the most extreme conditions found in the Universe, its key science objectives include: (1) Robustly measuring mass and spin and mapping inner accretion flows across the black hole mass spectrum, from compact stars to intermediate-mass objects to active galactic nuclei. (2) Mapping out the full mass-radius relation of neutron stars using an ensemble of nearly two dozen rotation-powered pulsars and accreting neutron stars, and hence measuring the equation of state for ultradense matter over a much wider range of densities than explored by NICER. (3) Identifying and studying X-ray counterparts (in the post-Swift era) for multiwavelength and multi-messenger transients in the dynamic sky through cross-correlation with gravitational wave interferometers, neutrino observatories, and high-cadence time-domain surveys in other electromagnetic bands. (4) Continuously surveying the dynamic X-ray sky with a large duty cycle and high time resolution to characterize the behavior of X-ray sources over an unprecedentedly vast range of time scales. STROBE-X's formidable capabilities will also enable a broad portfolio of additional science.

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An X-ray spectroscopic search for dark matter and unidentified line signatures in the Perseus cluster with Hitomi

We present results of a search for unidentified line emission and absorption signals in the 2-12keV energy band of spectra extracted from Perseus Cluster core region observations obtained with the 5eV energy resolution Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer. No significant unidentified line emission or absorption is found. Line flux upper limits (1 sigma per resolution element) vary with photon energy and assumed intrinsic width, decreasing from 100 photons cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr $^{-1}$ at 2keV to $<10$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr $^{-1}$ over most of the 5-10 keV energy range for a Gaussian line with Doppler broadening of 640 km/s. Limits for narrower and broader lines have a similar energy dependence and are systematically smaller and larger, respectively. These line flux limits are used to constrain the decay rate of hypothetical dark matter candidates. For the sterile neutrino decay rate, new constraints over the the mass range of 4-24 keV with mass resolution better than any previous X-ray analysis are obtained. Additionally, the accuracy of relevant thermal spectral models and atomic data are evaluated. The Perseus cluster spectra may be described by a composite of multi-temperature thermal and AGN power-law continua. Superposed on these, a few line emission signals possibly originating from unmodeled atomic processes (including Si XIV and Fe XXV) are marginally detected and tabulated. Comparisons with previous X-ray upper limits and future prospects for dark matter searches using high-energy resolution spectroscopy are discussed.

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Detection of polarized gamma-ray emission from the Crab nebula with Hitomi Soft Gamma-ray Detector

We present the results from the Hitomi Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) observation of the Crab nebula. The main part of SGD is a Compton camera, which in addition to being a spectrometer, is capable of measuring polarization of gamma-ray photons. The Crab nebula is one of the brightest X-ray / gamma-ray sources on the sky, and, the only source from which polarized X-ray photons have been detected. SGD observed the Crab nebula during the initial test observation phase of Hitomi. We performed the data analysis of the SGD observation, the SGD background estimation and the SGD Monte Carlo simulations, and, successfully detected polarized gamma-ray emission from the Crab nebula with only about 5 ks exposure time. The obtained polarization fraction of the phase-integrated Crab emission (sum of pulsar and nebula emissions) is (22.1 $\pm$ 10.6)% and, the polarization angle is 110.7$^o$ + 13.2 / $-$13.0$^o$ in the energy range of 60--160 keV (The errors correspond to the 1 sigma deviation). The confidence level of the polarization detection was 99.3%. The polarization angle measured by SGD is about one sigma deviation with the projected spin axis of the pulsar, 124.0$^o$ $\pm$0.1$^o$.

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Hitomi X-ray Observation of the Pulsar Wind Nebula G21.5$-$0.9

We present results from the Hitomi X-ray observation of a young composite-type supernova remnant (SNR) G21.5$-$0.9, whose emission is dominated by the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) contribution. The X-ray spectra in the 0.8-80 keV range obtained with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) and Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) show a significant break in the continuum as previously found with the NuSTAR observation. After taking into account all known emissions from the SNR other than the PWN itself, we find that the Hitomi spectra can be fitted with a broken power law with photon indices of $Γ_1=1.74\pm0.02$ and $Γ_2=2.14\pm0.01$ below and above the break at $7.1\pm0.3$ keV, which is significantly lower than the NuSTAR result ($\sim9.0$ keV). The spectral break cannot be reproduced by time-dependent particle injection one-zone spectral energy distribution models, which strongly indicates that a more complex emission model is needed, as suggested by recent theoretical models. We also search for narrow emission or absorption lines with the SXS, and perform a timing analysis of PSR J1833$-$1034 with the HXI and SGD. No significant pulsation is found from the pulsar. However, unexpectedly, narrow absorption line features are detected in the SXS data at 4.2345 keV and 9.296 keV with a significance of 3.65 $σ$. While the origin of these features is not understood, their mere detection opens up a new field of research and was only possible with the high resolution, sensitivity and ability to measure extended sources provided by an X-ray microcalorimeter.

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Temperature Structure in the Perseus Cluster Core Observed with Hitomi

The present paper investigates the temperature structure of the X-ray emitting plasma in the core of the Perseus cluster using the 1.8--20.0 keV data obtained with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Hitomi Observatory. A series of four observations were carried out, with a total effective exposure time of 338 ks and covering a central region $\sim7'$ in diameter. The SXS was operated with an energy resolution of $\sim$5 eV (full width at half maximum) at 5.9 keV. Not only fine structures of K-shell lines in He-like ions but also transitions from higher principal quantum numbers are clearly resolved from Si through Fe. This enables us to perform temperature diagnostics using the line ratios of Si, S, Ar, Ca, and Fe, and to provide the first direct measurement of the excitation temperature and ionization temperature in the Perseus cluster. The observed spectrum is roughly reproduced by a single temperature thermal plasma model in collisional ionization equilibrium, but detailed line ratio diagnostics reveal slight deviations from this approximation. In particular, the data exhibit an apparent trend of increasing ionization temperature with increasing atomic mass, as well as small differences between the ionization and excitation temperatures for Fe, the only element for which both temperatures can be measured. The best-fit two-temperature models suggest a combination of 3 and 5 keV gas, which is consistent with the idea that the observed small deviations from a single temperature approximation are due to the effects of projection of the known radial temperature gradient in the cluster core along the line of sight. Comparison with the Chandra/ACIS and the XMM-Newton/RGS results on the other hand suggests that additional lower-temperature components are present in the ICM but not detectable by Hitomi SXS given its 1.8--20 keV energy band.

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