Discovery of localized non-thermal X-ray emission from the nova remnant of GK Persei (1901)

Abstract

The X-ray nebula associated with the nova shell of GK Persei (1901) is lumpy and asymmetric with most of the emission coming from the SW. The brightest X-ray emission region that appears as all arc is co-spatial with the brightest non-therinal radio emitting region and found to be a source of non-thermal X-ray emission with a power law photon index of 2.3(-1.3)(+0-9) with L similar to 4 x 10(30) erg s(-1) at 470 pc. The unexpectedly low temperature of the forward shock (0.1-0.3 keV) is suggestive of particle acceleration occurring in this region, too. The total X-ray spectrum of the nebula consists of two prominent components of emission (other than the localized non-thermal emission).