Super-hard X-Ray Emission from eta Carinae Observed with Suzaku

TL;DR

This study reports Suzaku observations of eta Carinae revealing steady super-hard X-ray emission likely due to inverse Compton scattering or very hot thermal plasma, providing new insights into high-energy processes in massive stellar systems.

Contribution

First detection of steady super-hard X-ray emission from eta Carinae with Suzaku, constraining its origin and spectral properties compared to previous observations.

Findings

Detected super-hard X-ray emission in 15--50 keV range.

No significant variability or flares observed during the epochs.

Emission likely due to inverse Compton scattering or hot thermal plasma.

Abstract

We present the Suzaku results of eta Carinae in the 5--50 keV range conducted twice around the apastron in 2005 August for 50 ks and in 2006 February for 20 ks. The X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) produced hard (5--12 keV) band spectra, resolving K shell lines from highly ionized Fe and Ni. The Hard X-ray Detector yielded a significant detection in the super-hard (15--50 keV) band, which is uncontaminated by near-by sources. We constrained the temperature of the optically-thin thermal plasma emission dominant in the hard band as 3--4 keV using the K-shell line features with the XIS. We found significant excess emission above the thermal emission in the super-hard band with the PIN, confirming the previous INTEGRAL ISGRI report. The entire 5--50 keV spectra were fitted by a combination of a thermal plasma model plus a flat power-law or a very hot thermal bremsstrahlung model for the excess emission. No significant change of the excess emission was found at different epochs within the systematic and statistical uncertainties and no flare-like flux amplification was seen in the hard band, indicating that the excess emission is a steady phenomenon. We argue that the super-hard emission is attributable to the inverse Compton of stellar UV photons by non-thermal electrons or to the thermal bremsstrahlung of very hot plasma, and not to the bremsstrahlung by non-thermal electrons colliding with cold ambient matter.