Scientific article
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Overionized plasma in the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East anchored by XRISM observations

ContributorsXRISM
Published inPublications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, vol. 77, no. 1, p. L1-L8
Publication date2025
First online date2024-12-26
Abstract

Sagittarius A East is a supernova remnant with a unique surrounding environment, as it is located in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center, Sagittarius A∗⁠. The X-ray emission of the remnant is suspected to show features of overionized plasma, which would require peculiar evolutionary paths. We report on the first observation of Sagittarius A East with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). Equipped with a combination of a high-resolution microcalorimeter spectrometer and a large field-of-view CCD imager, we for the first time resolved the Fe xxv K-shell lines into fine structure lines and measured the forbidden-to-resonance intensity ratio to be 1.39±0.12⁠, which strongly suggests the presence of overionized plasma. We obtained a reliable constraint on the ionization temperature just before the transition into the overionization state, of >4keV. The recombination timescale was constrained to be <8×1011cm−3s. The small velocity dispersion of 109±6kms−1 indicates a low Fe ion temperature <8keV and a small expansion velocity <200kms−1⁠. The high initial ionization temperature and small recombination timescale suggest that either rapid cooling of the plasma via adiabatic expansion from dense circumstellar material or intense photoionization by Sagittarius A∗ in the past may have triggered the overionization.

Funding
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [24K17093]
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration [80GSFC21M0002]
  • Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/T000244/1]
Citation (ISO format)
XRISM. Overionized plasma in the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East anchored by XRISM observations. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 2025, vol. 77, n° 1, p. L1–L8. doi: 10.1093/pasj/psae111
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Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0004-6264
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