1. Chandra observations of galactic supernova remnant Vela Jr. : A new sample of thin filaments emitting synchrotron X-rays
- Author
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Ryo Yamazaki, Aya Bamba, and Junko S. Hiraga
- Subjects
Point spread function ,Physics ,Astrophysics (astro-ph) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Order (ring theory) ,Synchrotron radiation ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Electron ,Astrophysics ,Vela ,Synchrotron ,Spectral line ,law.invention ,Space and Planetary Science ,law ,X-rays ,individual (G266.6-1.2, RX J0852.0-4622) supernova remnants ,Supernova remnant ,ISM ,acceleration of particles - Abstract
A galactic supernova remnant (SNR) Vela Jr. (RX J0852.0$-$4622, G266.6$-$1.2) shows sharp filamentary structure on the north-western edge of the remnant in the hard X-ray band. The filaments are so smooth and located on the most outer side of the remnant. We measured the averaged scale width of the filaments ($w_u$ and $w_d$) with excellent spatial resolution of {\it Chandra}, which are in the order of the size of the point spread function of {\it Chandra} on the upstream side and 49.5 (36.0--88.8) arcsec on the downstream side, respectively. The spectra of the filaments are very hard and have no line-like structure, and were well reproduced with an absorbed power-law model with $\Gamma = $2.67 (2.55--2.77), or a {\tt SRCUT} model with $\nu_{rolloff}$ = 4.3 (3.4--5.3)$\times 10^{16}$ Hz under the assumption of $p=0.3$. These results imply that the hard X-rays are synchrotron radiation emitted by accelerated electrons, as mentioned previously. Using a correlation between a function ${\cal B} \equiv \nu_{rolloff}/w_d^2$ and the SNR age, we estimated the distance and the age of Vela Jr.: the estimated distance and age are 0.33 (0.26--0.50) kpc and 660 (420--1400) years, respectively. These results are consistent with previous reports, implying that ${\cal B}$--age relation may be a useful tool to estimate the distance and the age of synchrotron X-ray emitting SNRs., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, ApJ, in press
- Published
- 2005