2008/08/28 by Y. Yao, Q. Daniel Wang, Q. D. Wang +7 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/690/1/143
published as Astrophys.J.690:143-153,2009 · 10 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, 2009
arxiv created 2008/08/28 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present Suzaku spectra of X-ray emission in the fields just off the LMC X-3 sight line. O vii , O viii , and Ne ix emission lines are clearly detected, suggesting the presence of an optically thin thermal plasma with an average temperature of 2.4 × 10 6 K. This temperature is significantly higher than that inferred from existing X-ray absorption line data obtained with Chandra grating observations of LMC X-3, strongly suggesting that the gas is not isothermal. We then jointly analyze these data to characterize the spatial and temperature distributions of the gas. Assuming a vertical exponential Galactic disk model, we estimate the gas temperature and density at the Galactic plane and their scale heights as 3.6(2.9, 4.7) × 10 6 K and 1.4(0.3, 3.4) × 10 −3 cm −3 and 1.4(0.2, 5.2) kpc and 2.8(1.0, 6.4) kpc, respectively. This characterization can account for all the O vi line absorption, as observed in a Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Explorer spectrum of LMC X-3, but only predicts less than one-tenth of the O vi line emission intensity typically detected at high Galactic latitudes. The bulk of the O vi emission most likely arises at interfaces between cool and hot gases.