Discovery of non-thermal X-ray emission from radio lobes of Cygnus A

摘要

Using deep Chandra ACIS observation data for Cygnus A, we report the detection of non-thermal X-rays from its radio lobes surrounded by a rich intra-cluster medium (ICM). The non-thermal X-ray is considered to be produced via an inverse Compton (IC) process. The spectral energy distribution strongly suggest that the seed photon source of the IC X-rays includes both cosmic microwave background radiation and synchrotron radiation from the lobes. The derived parameters indicate significant energy density of electrons dominance in the Cygnus A lobes under the rich ICM environment.