NuSTAR Detection of a Hard X-Ray Source in the Supernova Remnant-molecular Cloud Interaction Site of IC 443
Name
Zhang_2018_ApJ_859_141.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.14 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Zhang, Shuo
Tang, Xiaping
Zhang, Xiao
Sun, Lei
Gotthelf, Eric V
Zhang, Zhi-Yu
Li, Hui
Cheng, Allen
Pasham, Dheeraj
Baganoff, Frederick K
Date Issued
2018
Journal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We report on a broadband study of a complex X-ray source (1SAX J0618.0+2227) associated with the interaction site of the supernova remnant (SNR) IC 443 and ambient molecular cloud (MC) using NuSTAR, XMM-Newton, and Chandra observations. Its X-ray spectrum is composed of both thermal and nonthermal components. The thermal component can be equally well represented by either a thin plasma model with kT = 0.19 keV or a blackbody model with kT = 0.11 keV. The nonthermal component can be fit with either a power law with Γ ∼ 1.7 or a cutoff power law with Γ ∼ 1.5 and a cutoff energy at E cut ∼ 18 keV. Using the newly obtained NuSTAR data set, we test three possible scenarios for isolated X-ray sources in the SNR-MC interaction site: (1) a pulsar wind nebula (PWN); (2) an SNR ejecta fragment; and (3) a shocked molecular clump. We conclude that this source is most likely composed of an SNR ejecta (or a PWN) and surrounding shocked molecular clumps. The nature of this hard X-ray source in the SNR-MC interaction site of IC 443 may shed light on unidentified X-ray sources with hard X-ray spectra in rich environments for star-forming regions, such as the Galactic center.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/AABE7C
