Search for Thermal X-ray Features from the Crab nebula with Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer

Hitomi Collaboration: Felix Aharonian , Hiroki Akamatsu , Fumie Akimoto , Steven W. Allen , Lorella Angelini , Marc Audard , Hisamitsu Awaki , Magnus Axelsson

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Aya Bamba Marshall W. Bautz Roger Blandford Laura W. Brenneman Greg V. Brown Esra Bulbul Edward M. Cackett Maria Chernyakova Meng P. Chiao Paolo S. Coppi Elisa Costantini Jelle de Plaa Cor P. de Vries Jan-Willem den Herder Chris Done Tadayasu Dotani Ken Ebisawa Megan E. Eckart Teruaki Enoto Yuichiro Ezoe Andrew C. Fabian Carlo Ferrigno Adam R. Foster Ryuichi Fujimoto Yasushi Fukazawa Akihiro Furuzawa Massimiliano Galeazzi Luigi C. Gallo Poshak Gandhi Margherita Giustini Andrea Goldwurm Liyi Gu Matteo Guainazzi Yoshito Haba Kouichi Hagino Kenji Hamaguchi Ilana M. Harrus Isamu Hatsukade Katsuhiro Hayashi Takayuki Hayashi Kiyoshi Hayashida Junko S. Hiraga Ann Hornschemeier Akio Hoshino John P. Hughes Yuto Ichinohe Ryo Iizuka Hajime Inoue Yoshiyuki Inoue Manabu Ishida Kumi Ishikawa Yoshitaka Ishisaki Jelle Kaastra Tim Kallman Tsuneyoshi Kamae Jun Kataoka Satoru Katsuda Nobuyuki Kawai Richard L. Kelley Caroline A. Kilbourne Takao Kitaguchi Shunji Kitamoto Tetsu Kitayama Takayoshi Kohmura Motohide Kokubun Katsuji Koyama Shu Koyama Peter Kretschmar Hans A. Krimm Aya Kubota Hideyo Kunieda Philippe Laurent Shiu-Hang Lee Maurice A. Leutenegger Olivier O. Limousin Michael Loewenstein Knox S. Long David Lumb Greg Madejski Yoshitomo Maeda Daniel Maier Kazuo Makishima Maxim Markevitch Hironori Matsumoto Kyoko Matsushita Dan McCammon Brian R. McNamara Missagh Mehdipour Eric D. Miller Jon M. Miller Shin Mineshige Kazuhisa Mitsuda Ikuyuki Mitsuishi Takuya Miyazawa Tsunefumi Mizuno Hideyuki Mori Koji Mori Koji Mukai Hiroshi Murakami Richard F. Mushotzky Takao Nakagawa Hiroshi Nakajima Takeshi Nakamori Shinya Nakashima Kazuhiro Nakazawa Kumiko K. Nobukawa Masayoshi Nobukawa Hirofumi Noda Hirokazu Odaka Takaya Ohashi Masanori Ohno Takashi Okajima Naomi Ota Masanobu Ozaki Frits Paerels Stephane Paltani Robert Petre Ciro Pinto Frederick S. Porter Katja Pottschmidt Christopher S. Reynolds Samar Safi-Harb Shinya Saito Kazuhiro Sakai Toru Sasaki Goro Sato Kosuke Sato Rie Sato Toshiki Sato Makoto Sawada Norbert Schartel Peter J. Serlemtsos Hiromi Seta Megumi Shidatsu Aurora Simionescu Randall K. Smith Yang Soong Lukasz Stawarz Yasuharu Sugawara Satoshi Sugita Andrew Szymkowiak Hiroyasu Tajima Hiromitsu Takahashi Tadayuki Takahashi Shinichiro Takeda Yoh Takei Toru Tamagawa Takayuki Tamura Takaaki Tanaka Yasuo Tanaka Yasuyuki T. Tanaka Makoto S. Tashiro Yuzuru Tawara Yukikatsu Terada Yuichi Terashima Francesco Tombesi Hiroshi Tomida Yohko Tsuboi Masahiro Tsujimoto Hiroshi Tsunemi Takeshi Go Tsuru Hiroyuki Uchida Hideki Uchiyama Yasunobu Uchiyama Shutaro Ueda Yoshihiro Ueda Shinichiro Uno C. Megan Urry Eugenio Ursino Shin Watanabe Norbert Werner Dan R. Wilkins Brian J. Williams Shinya Yamada Hiroya Yamaguchi Kazutaka Yamaoka Noriko Y. Yamasaki Makoto Yamauchi Shigeo Yamauchi Tahir Yaqoob Yoichi Yatsu Daisuke Yonetoku Irina Zhuravleva Abderahmen Zoghbi Nozomu Tominaga Takashi J. Moriya

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classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE astro-ph.GA

keywords massx-raycrablimitplasmadensityenergyexplosion

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The Crab nebula originated from a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion observed in 1054 A.D. When viewed as a supernova remnant (SNR), it has an anomalously low observed ejecta mass and kinetic energy for an Fe-core collapse SN. Intensive searches were made for a massive shell that solves this discrepancy, but none has been detected. An alternative idea is that the SN1054 is an electron-capture (EC) explosion with a lower explosion energy by an order of magnitude than Fe-core collapse SNe. In the X-rays, imaging searches were performed for the plasma emission from the shell in the Crab outskirts to set a stringent upper limit to the X-ray emitting mass. However, the extreme brightness of the source hampers access to its vicinity. We thus employed spectroscopic technique using the X-ray micro-calorimeter onboard the Hitomi satellite. By exploiting its superb energy resolution, we set an upper limit for emission or absorption features from yet undetected thermal plasma in the 2-12 keV range. We also re-evaluated the existing Chandra and XMM-Newton data. By assembling these results, a new upper limit was obtained for the X-ray plasma mass of <~ 1Mo for a wide range of assumed shell radius, size, and plasma temperature both in and out of the collisional equilibrium. To compare with the observation, we further performed hydrodynamic simulations of the Crab SNR for two SN models (Fe-core versus EC) under two SN environments (uniform ISM versus progenitor wind). We found that the observed mass limit can be compatible with both SN models if the SN environment has a low density of <~ 0.03 cm-3 (Fe core) or <~ 0.1 cm-3 (EC) for the uniform density, or a progenitor wind density somewhat less than that provided by a mass loss rate of 10-5 Mo yr-1 at 20 km s-1 for the wind environment.

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Search for Thermal X-ray Features from the Crab nebula with Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer

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