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Spectroscopy of high-Z ions as a way to understanding the nature of Cas A knots and intergalactic shocks

The goal of the studies comprising this thesis is a survey of prospective spectroscopical
methods of highly-charged ion observations from hot astrophysical plasmas that have not
been widely studied before.
The first main task that one needs to carry out in this case is a review of different
types of spectral lines and matching types of astrophysical objects. This review is then
followed by the development of the theoretical description and determination of the best
observable parameters in the promising direction and application of the method to the
specific objects. Two results of such study (combinations of spectral line type and object
type) are presented in the thesis.
The hyperfine structure lines of highly-ionized metal atoms (primarily the line of 14N VII
at 5.652 mm) are shown to be observable with modern radio telescopes.The astrophysical
objects responsible for appearance of these lines either in emission or in absorption are hot
interstellar medium in the Galaxy and other galaxies, hot intracluster medium in clusters of
galaxies, supernova remnants, gas around quasars and the warm-hot intergalactic medium,
being the most interesting object for the application of the proposed method.
The highly-ionized metal recombination lines in the optical and near-infrared ranges
constitute another promising result of our studies. We have shown that the lines of this
previously unstudied type should be strong enough to be observable even in moderate
time on the modern ground-based optical telescopes from the dense knots of ejecta of the
young Galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Such prospective observations will allow
to identify all abundant ions present in the ejecta being crossed by the reverse shock wave
of the supernova explosion, thus increasing our knowledge both on the ejecta composition
and details of the shock wave interaction with the metal-dominated dense clouds.
In the course of the work, it was realized that the physical conditions in the emitting
regions of these dense ejecta clouds (so-called fast-moving knots) of Cassiopeia A and other
young oxygen-dominated supernova remnants are rather unconstrained with predictions of
different models for the line intensities varying by orders of magnitude. To make better
estimates of these conditions from the existing data, we have utilized the archival observations
of ISO and Spitzer space observatories to determine the diagnostic fine-structure
line ratios. Analysis of this observational data set has resulted in understanding of relative
importances of various processes proposed in different theoretical models, as well as
in determination of physical parameters in some of previously observationally unexplored
regions of the fast-moving knots. This study is also included in the thesis. / Disertācija izstrādāta un aizstāvēta Minhenē.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LATVIA/oai:https://dspace.lu.lv:7/1278
Date January 2008
CreatorsDocenko, Dmitrijs
Source SetsUniversity of Latvia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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