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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 2(503), p. L175-L181, 1998

DOI: 10.1086/311541

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Evidence for Proportionate Partition Between the Magnetic Field and Hot Gas in Turbulent Cassiopeia A

Journal article published in 1998 by Jonathan W. Keohane, E. V. Gotthelf ORCID, R. Petre
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present a deep X-ray observation of the young Galactic supernova remnant Cas A, acquired with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager. This high dynamic range (232 ks) image reveals low-surface-brightness X-ray structure, which appears qualitatively similar to corresponding radio features. We consider the correlation between the X-ray and radio morphologies and its physical implications. After correcting for the inhomogeneous absorption across the remnant, we performed a point by point (4" resolution) surface brightness comparison between the X-ray and radio images. We find a strong (r = 0.75) log-log correlation, implying an overall relationship of $\log(Σ_{_{\rm X-ray}}) ∝ (2.21±0.05) \times \log(Σ_{_{\rm radio}})$. This is consistent with proportionate partition (and possibly equipartition) between the local magnetic field and the hot gas --- implying that Cas A's plasma is fully turbulent and continuously amplifying the magnetic field. Comment: 8 pages with embedded bitmapped figures, Accepted by ApJ Letters 5/1/98