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Abstract:

Abstract We report on the study of six Chandra observations (four epochs) of the Central Compact Object (CCO) in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant with the ACIS instrument in the subarray mode. This mode minimizes spectrum-distorting instrumental effects such as pileup. The data were taken over a time span of ∼14 yr. If a non-magnetic carbon atmosphere is assumed for this youngest known CCO, then the temperature change is constrained to be T ̇ = − 2900 ± 600 K yr −1 or T ̇ = − 4500 ± 800 K yr −1 (1 σ uncertainties) for constant or varying absorbing hydrogen column density. These values correspond to cooling rates of −1.5% ± 0.3% per 10 yr and −2.3% ± 0.4% per 10 yr, respectively. We discuss an apparent increase in the cooling rate in the last five years and the variations of the inferred absorbing hydrogen column densities between epochs. Considered together, these changes could indicate systematic effects such as caused by, e.g., an imperfect calibration of the increasing contamination of the ACIS filter.

Abstract:

The theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence predicts that Alfvénic and slow-mode-like compressive fluctuations are energetically decoupled at small scales in the inertial range. The partition of energy between these fluctuations determines the nature of dissipation, which, in many astrophysical systems, happens on scales where plasma is collisionless. However, when the magnetorotational instability (MRI) drives the turbulence, it is difficult to resolve numerically the scale at which both types of fluctuations start to be decoupled because the MRI energy injection occurs in a broad range of wavenumbers, and both types of fluctuations are usually expected to be coupled even at relatively small scales. In this study, we focus on collisional MRI turbulence threaded by a near-azimuthal mean magnetic field, which is naturally produced by the differential rotation of a disc. We show that, in such a case, the decoupling scales are reachable using a reduced MHD model that includes differential-rotation effects. In our reduced MHD model, the Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations are coupled only through the linear terms that are proportional to the angular velocity of the accretion disc. We numerically solve for the turbulence in this model and show that the Alfvénic and compressive fluctuations are decoupled at the small scales of our simulations as the nonlinear energy transfer dominates the linear coupling below the MRI-injection scale. In the decoupling scales, the energy flux of compressive fluctuations contained in the small scales is almost double that of Alfvénic fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the application of this result to prescriptions of ion-to-electron heating ratio in hot accretion flows.