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

Abstract

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.

7 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS in press

References in corpus (7)

• The Plasma Structure of the Cygnus Loop from the Northeastern Rim to the Southwestern Rim
• Crushing of interstellar gas clouds in supernova remnants II. X-ray emission
• Shock-cloud interaction in the Vela SNR II. Hydrodynamic model
• The Plasma Structure of the Southwestern Region of the Cygnus Loop with the XMM-Newton Observatory
• Abundance Inhomogeneity in the Northeastern Rim of the Cygnus Loop Revealed by Suzaku Observatory
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• An XMM-Newton study of the mixed-morphology supernova remnant W28 (G6.4-0.1)
• High Forbidden-to-resonance Line Ratio of OVII Discovered in the Cygnus Loop
• Chandra Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Eastern XA Region of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant
• Study on the escape timescale of high-energy particles from supernova remnants through thermal X-ray properties