Cf: isobaric cooling flow differential emission measure model

This model calculates the spectrum of a standard isobaric cooling flow. The differential emission measure distribution \(\mathrm{d}Y(T)/\mathrm{d}T\) for the isobaric cooling flow model can be written as

\[D(T)\equiv \mathrm{d}Y(T)/\mathrm{d}T = \frac{5\dot{M}k}{2\mu m_{\mathrm{H}} \Lambda(T)},\]

where \(\dot{M}\) is the mass deposition rate, \(k\) is Boltzmann’s constant, \(\mu\) the mean molecular weight (0.618 for a plasma with 0.5 times solar abundances), \(m_{\mathrm{H}}\) is the mass of a hydrogen atom, and \(\Lambda(T)\) is the cooling function. We have calculated the cooling function \(\Lambda\) using our own SPEX code for a grid of temperatures and for 0.5 times solar abundances. The spectrum is evaluated by integrating the above differential emission measure distribution between a lower temperature boundary \(T_1\) and a high temperature boundary \(T_n\). We do this by creating a temperature grid with \(n\) bins and calculating the spectrum for each temperature.

Warning

Take care that \(n\) is not too small in case the relevant temperature is large; on the other hand if \(n\) is large, the computational time increases. Usually a spacing with temperature differences between adjacent bins of 0.1 (in \(\log\)) is sufficient and optimal.

Warning

The physical relevance of this model is a matter of debate.

The parameters of the model are:

norm : The mass deposition rate \(\dot{M}\) in \(\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\) \(\mathrm{yr}^{-1}\).
t1 : Lower temperature cut-off temperature \(T_1\). Default: 0.1 keV.
tn : Upper temperature cut-off temperature \(T_n\). Default: 1 keV.
nr : Number of temperature bins \(n\) used in the integration. Default value: 16
p : Slope \(p=1/\alpha\). Default: 0.25 (\(\alpha = 4\)).
cut : Lower temperature cut-off, in units of \(T_{\max}\). Default value: 0.1.
The following parameters are the same as for the cie-model:
hden : Hydrogen density in \(10^{20}\) \(\mathrm{m}^{-3}\)
it : Ion temperature in keV
vrms : RMS Velocity broadening in km/s (see Definition of the micro-turbulent velocity in SPEX)
ref : Reference element
01...30 : Abundances of H to Zn
file : Filename for the nonthermal electron distribution

Recommended citation: Kaastra et al. (2004) and Fabian et al. (1984).