Hard X-ray emission from Cassiopeia A SNR

Abstract

We report the results of extracting the hard X-ray continuum spectrum of Cas A SNR from RXTE/PCA Target of Opportunity (TOO) observations and CGRO/OSSE observations. The data can rule out the single thermal bremsstrahlung model for Cas A continuum between 2 and 150 keV. The single power law model gives a mediocre fit (∼5%) to the data with a power-law index, Γ=2.94±0.02. A model with two component (bremsstrahlung+bremsstrahlung or bremsstrahlung+power law) gives a good fit. The power law index is quite constrained suggesting that this continuum might not be the X-ray thermal bremsstrahlung from accelerated MeV electrons at shock fronts [1] which would have Γ≃2.26. With several SNRs detected by ASCA showing a hard power-law nonthermal X-ray continuum, we expect a similar situation for Cas A SNR which has Γ=2.98±0.09. We discuss the implication of the hardest nonthermal X-rays detected from Cas A to the synchrotron radiation model.