Probing Shock Properties with Non-thermal X-ray Filaments in Cas A

TL;DR

This study analyzes non-thermal X-ray filaments in Cassiopeia A using Chandra data, revealing spectral hardening and weak energy dependence of filament widths, to infer shock and magnetic field properties.

Contribution

It introduces a model incorporating cooling, advection, and diffusion to estimate shock parameters from filament spectral and spatial data.

Findings

Spectral hardening observed across filaments.

Filament widths show weak dependence on photon energy.

Estimated magnetic field and turbulence levels.

Abstract

Thin non-thermal X-ray filaments are often seen in young supernova remnants. We used data from the 1 Ms Chandra observation of Cassiopeia A to study spectral properties of some of the filaments in this remnant. For all the cases that we examined, the X-ray spectrum across the filaments hardens, at about 10% level, going outward, while observed filament widths depend only weakly on the photon energy. Using a model that includes radiative cooling, advection and diffusion of accelerated particles behind the shock, we estimated the magnetic field, turbulence level and shock obliquity.