Cassiopeia A: On the origin of the hard X-ray continuum and the implication of the observed O vııı Ly-α/Ly-β distribution

¹ SRON National Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
³ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße, 85740 Garching, Germany
⁴ Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
⁵ Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA
⁶ Chandra Fellow

Corresponding author: J. A. M. Bleeker, J.A.M.Bleeker@sron.nl

Received: 6 October 2000
Accepted: 24 October 2000

Abstract

We present the first results on the hard X-ray continuum image (up to 15 keV) of the supernova remnant Cas A measured with the EPIC cameras onboard XMM-Newton. The data indicate that the hard X-ray tail, observed previously, that extends to energies above 100 keV does not originate in localised regions, like the bright X-ray knots and filaments or the primary blast wave, but is spread over the whole remnant with a rather flat hardness ratio of the 8-10 and 10-15 keV energy bands. This result does not support an interpretation of the hard X-radiation as synchrotron emission produced in the primary shock, in which case a limb brightened shell of hard X-ray emission close to the primary shock front is expected. In fact a weak rim of emission near the primary shock front is discernable in the hardest X-ray image but it contains only a few percent of the hard X-ray emissivity. The equivalent width of the Fe-K line blend varies by more than an order of magnitude over the remnant, it is hard to explain this as Fe-emission from the reverse shock heated ejecta given the ejecta temperature and the age of the remnant. The uniquely high wavelength-dispersive RGS-spectrometer has allowed, for the first time, to extract monochromatic images in several highly ionised element species with high spectral resolution. We present here a preliminary result on the measurement of the Oviii Ly-α and Ly-β brightness distribution and brightness ratios. The large observed decrease of the Ly-α/Ly-β ratio going from the N to the SE can be explained by small-scale variations in the N_H column over the remnant and the potential presence of resonance scattering of the Oviii Ly-α photons in the limb brightened shell.