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LOFAR detections of low-frequency radio recombination lines towards Cassiopeia A

Ashish Asgekar 1 J. B. R. Oonk 1 S. Yatawatta 2 R. J. van Weeren 1, 3 J. P. Mckean 1 G. White 4 N. Jackson 5 J. Anderson 6 I. M. Avruch 7 F. Batejat 8 R. Beck 9 M. E. Bell 10 M. R. Bell 10 I. van Bemmel 1 M. J. Bentum 1 G. Bernardi 11 P. Best 12 L. Birzan 13 A. Bonafede 14 R. Braun 15 F. Breitling 16 R. H. van de Brink 1 J. Broderick 10 W. N. Brouw 2 M. Bruggen 14 H. R. Butcher 1 W. van Cappellen 1 B. Ciardi 17 J. E. Conway 8 F. de Gasperin 18 E. de Geus 19 A. de Jong 1 M. de Vos 1 S. Duscha 1 J. Eisloffel 20 H. Falcke 21, 6, 1 R. A. Fallows 22 C. Ferrari 23 W. Frieswijk 1 M. A. Garrett 13, 1 Jean-Mathias Grießmeier 24, 25 T. Grit 1 A. W. Gunst 1 T. E. Hassall 26 G. Heald 1 J. W. T. Hessels 27 M. Hoeft 20 M. Iacobelli 28, 29 H. Intema 13 E. Juette 30 A. Karastergiou 31 J. Kohler 32 V. I. Kondratiev 1 M. Kuniyoshi 6 G. Kuper 1 C. Law 33 J. van Leeuwen 27 P. Maat 1 G. Macario 23 G. Mann 16 S. Markoff 33 D. Mckay-Bukowski 34 M. Mevius 1 J. C. A. Miller-Jones 33 J. D. Mol 1 R. Morganti 2, 1 D. D. Mulcahy 10 H. Munk 1 M. J. Norden 1 E. Orru 1 H. Paas 1 M. Pandey-Pommier 35 V. N. Pandey 36 R. Pizzo 1 A. G. Polatidis 1 W. Reich 6 H. Rottgering 13 B. Scheers 33 A. Schoenmakers 1 J. Sluman 1 O. Smirnov 37 C. Sobey 6 M. Steinmetz 16 Michel Tagger 24 Y. Tang 1 C. Tasse 38 R. Vermeulen 1 C. Vocks 16 R. A. M. J. Wijers 33 M. W. Wise 1, 33 O. Wucknitz 39 P. Zarka 38
1 ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
2 Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen]
3 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
4 SLAC - Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
5 Jodrell Bank Cent. for Astrophysics
6 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
7 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
8 Onsala Space Observatory
9 LCPM - Laboratoire de Chimie Physique Moléculaire
10 University of Southampton
11 LPNHE - Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies
12 University of Edinburgh
13 Leiden Observatory [Leiden]
14 Jacobs University [Bremen]
15 TU Dresden - Technische Universität Dresden = Dresden University of Technology
16 AIP - Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam
17 Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
18 Hamburger Sternwarte/Hamburg Observatory
19 Medstar Research Institute
20 TLS - Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
21 Radboud university [Nijmegen]
22 Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
23 LAGRANGE - Joseph Louis LAGRANGE
24 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
25 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay
26 Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
27 UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam]
28 Sapienza University of Rome - Dipartimento di Matematica "Guido Castelnuovo" [Roma I]
29 CMLS - Centre de Mathématiques Laurent Schwartz
30 Ruhr-Universität Bochum [Bochum]
31 Oxford Astrophysics
32 KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
33 AI PANNEKOEK - Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek
34 University of Oulu
35 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
36 NRAO - National Radio Astronomy Observatory [Charlottesville]
37 Rhodes University, Grahamstown
38 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
39 AlfA - Argelander-Institut für Astronomie
Abstract : Cassiopeia A was observed using the Low-Band Antennas of the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) with high spectral resolution. This allowed a search for radio recombination lines (RRLs) along the line-of-sight to this source. Five carbon-alpha RRLs were detected in absorption between 40 and 50 MHz with a signal-to-noise ratio of > 5 from two independent LOFAR datasets. The derived line velocities (v_LSR ~ -50 km/s) and integrated optical depths (~ 13 s^-1) of the RRLs in our spectra, extracted over the whole supernova remnant, are consistent within each LOFAR dataset and with those previously reported. For the first time, we are able to extract spectra against the brightest hotspot of the remnant at frequencies below 330 MHz. These spectra show significantly higher (15-80 %) integrated optical depths, indicating that there is small-scale angular structure on the order of ~1 pc in the absorbing gas distribution over the face of the remnant. We also place an upper limit of 3 x 10^-4 on the peak optical depths of hydrogen and helium RRLs. These results demonstrate that LOFAR has the desired spectral stability and sensitivity to study faint recombination lines in the decameter band.
Keywords : ISM: clouds ISM: individual objects: Cas siopeia A radio lines : ISM
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IN2P3 | X-CMLS | USPC | UNIV-ORLEANS | CNRS | LPNHE | CMLS | UPMC | OBSPM | CRAL | INSU | UNIV-PARIS7 | X | UNICE | OCA | LAGRANGE | UNIV-COTEDAZUR | UNIV-LYON1 | X-DEP-MATH | USN | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | OSUC | LPC2E | ENS-LYON | SU-SCIENCES | UDL | UNIV-PARIS | LESIA | UP-SCIENCES | PSL | SU-TI

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Ashish Asgekar, J. B. R. Oonk, S. Yatawatta, R. J. van Weeren, J. P. Mckean, et al.. LOFAR detections of low-frequency radio recombination lines towards Cassiopeia A. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, EDP Sciences, 2013, 551 (L11), 5 p. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201221001⟩. ⟨insu-01286281⟩

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