X-Ray Observations of the W51 Complex with Suzaku

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of the X-ray emission from the middle-aged supernova remnant W51C and star-forming region W51B with Suzaku. The soft X-ray emission from W51C is well represented by an optically thin thermal plasma in the non-equilibrium ionization state with a temperature of $\sim$0.7 keV. The elemental abundance of Mg is significantly higher than the solar value. We find no significant feature of an over-ionized plasma in W51C. The hard X-ray emission is spatially coincident with the molecular clouds associated with W51B, overlapping with W51C. The spectrum is represented by an optically thin thermal plasma with a temperature of $\sim$5 keV or a powerlaw model with a photon index of $\sim$2.2. The emission probably has diffuse nature since its luminosity of 1$\times10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 0.5-10 keV band cannot be explained by the emission from point sources in this region. We discuss the possibility that the hard X-ray emission comes from stellar winds of OB stars in W51B or accelerated particles in W51C.