Evidence for Resonance Line Scattering in the Suzaku X-ray Spectrum of the Cygnus Loop

TL;DR

This study analyzes Suzaku X-ray data of the Cygnus Loop's northeastern rim, revealing resonance line scattering effects that influence abundance measurements of highly-ionized elements.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of resonance line scattering in the Cygnus Loop's X-ray spectrum, highlighting its impact on plasma diagnostics and elemental abundance estimates.

Findings

Resonance line scattering significantly affects O emission lines.

Elemental abundances are depleted to about 0.23 times solar, except for oxygen.

Optical depth for O resonance lines is substantial and must be considered.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the Suzaku observation of the northeastern rim of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant. The high detection efficiency together with the high spectral resolution of the Suzaku X-ray CCD camera enables us to detect highly-ionized C and N emission lines from the Cygnus Loop. Given the significant plasma structure within the Suzaku field of view, we selected the softest region based on ROSAT observations. The Suzaku spectral data are well characterized by a two-component non-equilibrium ionization model with different best-fit values for both the electron temperature and ionization timescale. Abundances of C to Fe are all depleted to typically 0.23 times solar with the exception of O. The abundance of O is relatively depleted by an additional factor of two compared with other heavy elements. We found that the resonance-line-scattering optical depth for the intense resonance lines of O is significant and, whereas the optical depth for other resonance lines is not as significant, it still needs to be taken into account for accurate abundance determination.