The Electron Temperature and 44Ti Decay Rate in Cassiopeia A

Abstract

The effects of plasma elemental composition and ionization state on the effective decay rate of 44Ti are investigated. We essentially follow the methods of the first authors to treat this topic, Mochizuki et al., but use more realistic plasma models, including radiative cooling, to compute the evolution of the charge state distribution behind the reverse shock. For uniform density ejecta (i.e. no clumps or bubbles) we find a negligible change to the decay rate of 44Ti. We discuss the effects of non-uniform ejecta. We also briefly consider the effects on these calculations of collisionless electron heating associated with weak secondary shocks propagating throughout the Cas A shell as a result of foward or reverse shock encounters with density inhomogeneities, recently suggested as an explanation for the hard X-ray tail seen in BeppoSAX and RXTE/OSSE spectra.