Discovery of 6.4 keV line and soft X-ray emissions from G323.7-1.0 with Suzaku

摘要

In this paper, the Suzaku X-ray data of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) candidate G323.7-1.0 are analyzed to search for X-ray emissions. Spatially extended enhancements in the 6.4 keV line and in soft X-rays are found inside or on the radio shell. The soft X-ray enhancement would be the hottest part of the shell-like X-ray emission along the radio shell. The 6.4 keV line enhancement is detected at a significance level of 4.1 sigma. The lower limit of the equivalent width (EW) is 1.2 keV. The energy centroid of the 6.4 keV line is 6.40 +/- 0.04 keV, indicating that the iron is less ionized than the Ne-like state. If the 6.4 keV line originates from ionizing non-equilibrium thermal plasma, presence of iron-rich ejecta in a low-ionization state is required, which is disfavored by the relatively old age of the SNR. The 6.4 keV line enhancement would be due to K-shell ionization of iron atoms in a dense interstellar medium by high-energy particles. Since there is no irradiating X-ray source, the origin of the 6.4 keV line enhancement is not likely the photoionization. The large EW can only be explained by K-shell ionization due to cosmic-ray protons with an energy of similar to 10 MeV, which might be generated by the shock acceleration in G323.7-1.0.