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Thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission from stellar clusters and superbubbles

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Abstract

Massive stellar clusters inject significant mass and energy into their surroundings driving superbubbles, 100–1000 pc diameter shells of swept-up interstellar material that contain a hot (\(10^{6}\) K), shock-heated gas. Analytically, the evolution of these objects is usually described as an expanding, pressure-driven bubble. However, in the 90s discrepancies between predictions of the pressure-driven model and X-ray observations of superbubbles were observed. Resolutions to these discrepancies were proposed, mainly through modifications to the model, though it wasn’t until the advent of Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku that these could be observationally tested, with advances in numerical modelling also providing valuable insight. Here I review X-ray observations of superbubbles and their massive stellar clusters and describe how their thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission have helped the understanding of the physical properties and evolution of these objects. Future prospects with the next generation of X-ray observatories are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. Available at http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst99/docs/default.html.

  2. With updates in Vázquez and Leitherer (2005), Leitherer et al. (2010, 2014).

  3. Available at http://www.atomdb.org/.

  4. Available at https://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/foreground/fg_LAB_HI_Survey_get.cfm.

  5. Available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/rosat/survey/sxrb/12/ass.html.

  6. These files were obtained from XRISM: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xrism/proposals/, Suzaku: https://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/suzaku/prop_tools/xis_mat.html, Athena WFI: http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ATHENA-WFI/response_matrices.html, Athena X-IFU: http://x-ifu-resources.irap.omp.eu/PUBLIC/RESPONSES/CC_CONFIGURATION/, Chandra: http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/prop_plan/imaging/, XMM-Newton: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/epic-response-files, ROSAT: https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/pspc_matrices.html, eROSITA: https://wiki.mpe.mpg.de/eRosita/erocalib_calibration.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the referee, Prof. Klaus Scherer for his helpful comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript, Jonathan Mackey for his help and advice, and also the editors of this Topical Collection Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Manami Sasaki, and Julia Tjus for inviting me to write this review. I thank and acknowledge the permission of Anne Jaskot and the AAS for the reproduction of Fig. 6, and Astronomy and Astrophysics for Figs. 7 and 8.

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Correspondence to Patrick J. Kavanagh.

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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Plasma, Particles, and Photons: ISM Physics Revisited. Guest Editors: Manami Sasaki, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Julia Tjus.

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Kavanagh, P.J. Thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission from stellar clusters and superbubbles. Astrophys Space Sci 365, 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-019-3719-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-019-3719-5

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