The origin of the X-ray emitting plasma in the eastern edge of the Cygnus Loop

Details The origin of the X-ray emitting plasma in the eastern edge of the Cygnus Loop The origin of the X-ray emitting plasma in the eastern edge of the Cygnus Loop

2010-03-17

arxiv.org/abs/1003.3424v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

7 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS in press

Scientific paper

The Cygnus Loop is interacting with a protrusion of the cavity wall in its eastern edge (the XA region), where the X-ray emission is very bright. The complexity of the environment and the non-linear physical processes of the shock-cloud interaction make the origin of the X-ray emission still not well understood. Our purpose is to understand the physical origin of the X-ray emission in the XA region, addressing, in particular, the role of thermal conduction in the interaction process. We analyzed two XMM-Newton data sets, performing image analysis and spatially resolved spectral analysis on a set of homogeneous regions. We applied a recently developed diagnostic tool to compare spectral analysis results with predictions of theoretical models, and to estimate the efficiency of thermal conduction on the X-ray emitting shocked plasma. We found that the inhomogeneous cavity wall contains both large clumps (the protrusion) and small isolated clumps with different densities. A large indentation bent over to the south is detected. The abundance of the surrounding ISM is ~0.2 times solar value. We confirmed the important role of thermal conduction in the evolution of X-ray emitting plasma during shock-cloud interaction.

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