Evidence of X-ray Synchrotron Emission from Electrons Accelerated to 10^13 eV in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant

Session 12 - Degenerate Stars & Supernovae.
Oral session, Monday, June 09
North Main Hall C/D,

[12.06] Evidence of X-ray Synchrotron Emission from Electrons Accelerated to 10^13 eV in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant

G. E. Allen, E. V. Gotthelf, K. Jahoda, J. Keohane, R. Petre (NASA/GSFC), R. E. Lingenfelter, R. E. Rothschild (UCSD)

The 2-60 keV X-ray spectrum of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant has been measured using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. This spectrum clearly reveals a nonthermal high-energy X-ray ``tail.'' A timing analysis of this data does not show evidence of pulsations at frequencies between about 10^-3 Hz and 1024 Hz. Of the possible nonthermal continuum emission mechanisms---a pulsar, inverse Compton scattering, nonthermal bremsstrahlung emission, and synchrotron radiation---an analysis of the spectrum suggests that the high-energy X-ray emission is dominated by synchrotron emission between about 10 keV and 60 keV and (2) that a significant fraction of the 2-10 keV emission spectrum is synchrotron radiation. If Cassiopeia A does emit such X-ray synchrotron radiation, these results support the hypothesis that Galactic cosmic rays are accelerated predominantly in supernova remnants.

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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: glenn.allen@gsfc.nasa.gov

Program listing for Monday