We present the Suzaku results of a supernova remnant (SNR), G 359.1−0.5 in the direction of the Galactic center region. From the SNR, we find prominent K-shell lines of highly ionized Si and S ions, together with unusual structures at 2.5-3.0 and 3.1-3.6 keV. No canonical SNR plasma model, in either ionization equilibrium or under-ionization, can explain the structures. The energies and shapes of the structures are similar to those of the radiative transitions of free electrons to the K-shell of He-like Si and S ions (radiative recombination continuum: RRC). The presence of the strong RRC structures indicates that the plasma is in over-ionization. In fact, the observed spectrum is well fitted with an over-ionized plasma model. The best-fit electron temperature of 0.29 keV is far smaller than the ionization temperature of 0.77 keV, which means that G 359.1−0.5 is in extreme condition of over-ionization. We report some cautions on the physical parameters, and comment possible origins for the over-ionized plasma.

We present deep observations of the Galactic supernova remnant IC 443 with the Suzaku X-ray satellite. We find prominent K-shell lines from iron and nickel, together with a triangle residual at 8-10 keV, which corresponds to the energy of the radiative recombination continuum (RRC) of Helike iron. In addition, the wavy residuals have been seen at ∼5.1 and ∼5.5 keV. We confirm that the residuals show the first enhanced RRCs of He-and H-like calcium found in supernova remnants. These facts provide robust evidence for the recombining plasma. We reproduce the plasma in the 3.7-10 keV band using a recombining plasma model at the electron temperature 0.65 keV. The recombination parameter n e t (n e is electron density and t is elapsed time after formation of a recombining plasma) and abundances of iron and nickel are strongly correlated, and hence the errors are large. On the other hand, the ratio of nickel to iron relative to the solar abundances is well constrained to 11 +4 −3 (1σ). A possibility is that the large abundance ratio is a result of an asymmetric explosion of the progenitor star.

We report on new features of the typical mixed-morphology supernova remnant W 44. In X-ray spectra obtained with Suzaku, radiative recombination continua of highly ionized atoms were detected for the first time. The spectra are well reproduced by a thermal plasma in a recombining phase. The best-fit parameters suggest that the electron temperature of the shock-heated matter rapidly cooled down from $\sim$ 1 keV to $\sim$ 0.5 keV, possibly due to adiabatic expansion (rarefaction), occurred $\sim$ 20000 yr ago. We also discovered hard X-ray emission, which shows an arclike structure spatially correlating with a radio continuum filament. The surface-brightness distribution has a clear anticorrelation with $^{12}$ CO ($J$$=$ 2–1) emission from a molecular cloud observed with NANTEN2. While the hard X-ray is most likely due to a synchrotron enhancement in the vicinity of the cloud, no current model can quantitatively predict the observed flux.

We report the discovery of recombining plasmas in three supernova remnants (SNRs) with the Suzaku X-ray astronomy satellite. During SNR's evolution, the expanding supernova ejecta and the ambient matter are compressed and heated by the reverse and forward shocks to form an X-ray emitting hot plasma. Since ionization proceeds slowly compared to shock heating, most young or middle-aged SNRs have ionizing (underionized) plasmas. Owing to high sensitivity of Suzaku, however, we have detected radiative recombination continua (RRCs) from the SNRs IC 443, W49B, and G359.1-0.5. The presence of the strong RRC is the definitive evidence that the plasma is recombining (overionized). As a possible origin of the overionization, an interaction between the ejecta and dense circumstellar matter is proposed; the highly ionized gas was made at the initial phase of the SNR evolution in dense regions, and subsequent rapid adiabatic expansion caused sudden cooling of the electrons. The analysis on the full X-ray band spectrum of IC 443, which is newly presented in this paper, provides a consistent picture with this scenario. We also comment on the implications from the fact that all the SNRs having recombining plasmas are correlated with the mixed-morphology class.

We studied the relevance of the secular variation of Japanese interest in energy and environmental problems to the information primarily released by the news media. From the investigation of the extent of public interest in three matters, the global warming, the energy saving and nature, all indicated by opinion surveys, the number of newspaper articles and the frequency of Internet retrieval search, we proposed a model such that the public interest along with the acquired public knowledge were given as a function of public memory of the information primarily provided by the news media. The society was assumed here to be immersed in a virtual field of information environment, which induced the collective interest of the public and was proportional in strength to the extent of the public memory with oblivion. Introducing two types of oblivion function, we found the model to well reproduce the real time-variation of the Japanese interest, except for the case of nature, almost irrespective to the form of the function. Some comments were made on the attenuation of the public interest that occurred when the field became weakened.