High Energy Emission from "Dead" stars

• Author / Creator

  Hebbar, Pavan R.

• Massive stars end their life through explosive supernovae, leaving behind supernova remnants (SNRs) and forming neutron stars (NSs) or black holes (BHs). Studying the X-rays emitted from BHs, NSs, and SNRs allows us to investigate the high energy processes producing this radiation. However,
  challenges because of low photon counts, the response of instruments and background radiation can lead to confusion in the analysis. In this thesis, I investigate the X-ray emission of four systems using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to determine the properties of each system. I use two Chandra
  observations of an eclipsing binary millisecond pulsar, 47 Tuc W, to check the continued presence of dips in the X-ray light curve. I show that higher energy X-rays show a more prominent dip in the light curve, explaining the failure
  to detect eclipses in a data set taken with a detector sensitive principally to low-energy X-rays. Through the analysis of candidate active galactic nuclei (AGN) in two dwarf bulgeless galaxies, Henize 2-10 and NGC 4178, I introduce a novel method to identify which candidate AGN are likely young SNRs. I also provide evidence for a NS in SNR 1E 0102.2-7219, and model its X-ray spectrum to constrain its properties and determine the type of NS.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Neutron stars
  • Black holes
  • X-ray spectroscopy
  • High-energy astrophysics
  • Compact objects

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-c8k8-p554

• License

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