Hitomi Collaboration, Felix A. Aharonian, Hiroki Akamatsu, Fumie Akimoto, Steven W. Allen, Lorella Angelini, Keith A. Arnaud, Marc Audard, Hisamitsu Awaki, Magnus Axelsson, Aya Bamba, Marshall W. Bautz, Roger D. Blandford, Laura W. Brenneman, Gregory V. Brown, Esra Bulbul, Edward M. Cackett, Maria Chernyakova, Meng P. Chiao, Paolo Coppi, Elisa Costantini, Jelle de Plaa, Jan-Willem den Herder, Chris Done, Tadayasu Dotani, Ken Ebisawa, Megan E. Eckart, Teruaki Enoto, Yuichiro Ezoe, Andrew C. Fabian, Carlo Ferrigno, Adam R. Foster, Ryuichi Fujimoto, Yasushi Fukazawa, Akihiro Furuzawa, Massimiliano Galeazzi, Luigi C. Gallo, Poshak Gandhi, Margherita Giustini, Andrea Goldwurm, Liyi Gu, Matteo Guainazzi, Yoshito Haba, Kouichi Hagino, Kenji Hamaguchi, Ilana Harrus, Isamu Hatsukade, Katsuhiro Hayashi, Takayuki Hayashi, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Junko Hiraga, Ann E. Hornschemeier, Akio Hoshino, John P. Hughes, Yuto Ichinohe, Ryo Iizuka, Hajime Inoue, Shota Inoue, Yoshiyuki Inoue, Kazunori Ishibashi, Manabu Ishida, Kumi Ishikawa, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Masayuki Itoh, Masachika Iwai, Naoko Iyomoto, Jelle S. Kaastra, Timothy Kallman, Tuneyoshi Kamae, Erin Kara, Jun Kataoka, Satoru Katsuda, Junichiro Katsuta, Madoka Kawaharada, Nobuyuki Kawai, Richard L. Kelley, Dmitry Khangulyan, Caroline A. Kilbourne, Ashley L. King, Takao Kitaguchi, Shunji Kitamoto, Tetsu Kitayama, Takayoshi Kohmura, Motohide Kokubun, Shu Koyama, Katsuji Koyama, Peter Kretschmar, Hans A. Krimm, Aya Kubota, Hideyo Kunieda, Philippe Laurent, Francois Lebrun, Shiu-Hang Lee, Maurice Leutenegger, Olivier Limousin, Michael Loewenstein, Knox S. Long, David Lumb, Grzegorz M. Madejski, Yoshitomo Maeda, Daniel Maier, Kazuo Makishima, Maxim Markevitch, Hironori Matsumoto, Kyoko Matsushita, Dan McCammon, Brian R. McNamara, Missagh Mehdipour, Eric D. Miller, Jon M. Miller, Shin Mineshige, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Takuya Miyazawa, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Hideyuki Mori, Koji Mori, Harvey Moseley, Koji Mukai, Hiroshi Murakami, Toshio Murakami, Richard F. Mushotzky, Takao Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nakajima, Takeshi Nakamori, Toshio Nakano, Shinya Nakashima, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Kumiko Nobukawa, Masayoshi Nobukawa, Hirofumi Noda, Masaharu Nomachi, Steve L. O'Dell, Hirokazu Odaka, Takaya Ohashi, Masanori Ohno, Takashi Okajima, Naomi Ota, Masanobu Ozaki, Frits Paerels, Stephane Paltani, Arvind Parmar, Robert Petre, Ciro Pinto, Martin Pohl, F. Scott Porter, Katja Pottschmidt, Brian D. Ramsey, Christopher S. Reynolds, Helen R. Russell, Samar Safi-Harb, Shinya Saito, Kazuhiro Sakai, Hiroaki Sameshima, Toru Sasaki, Goro Sato, Kosuke Sato, Rie Sato, Makoto Sawada, Norbert Schartel, Peter J. Serlemitsos, Hiromi Seta, Megumi Shidatsu, Aurora Simionescu, Randall K. Smith, Yang Soong, Lukasz Stawarz, Yasuharu Sugawara, Satoshi Sugita, Andrew E. Szymkowiak, Hiroyasu Tajima, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Tadayuki Takahashi, Shin'ichiro Takeda, Yoh Takei, Toru Tamagawa, Keisuke Tamura, Takayuki Tamura, Takaaki Tanaka, Yasuo Tanaka, Yasuyuki Tanaka, Makoto Tashiro, Yuzuru Tawara, Yukikatsu Terada, Yuichi Terashima, Francesco Tombesi, Hiroshi Tomida, Yohko Tsuboi, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Hiroshi Tsunemi, Takeshi Tsuru, Hiroyuki Uchida, Hideki Uchiyama, Yasunobu Uchiyama, Shutaro Ueda, Yoshihiro Ueda, Shiro Ueno, Shin'ichiro Uno, C. Meg Urry, Eugenio Ursino, Cor P. de Vries, Shin Watanabe, Norbert Werner, Daniel R. Wik, Dan R. Wilkins, Brian J. Williams, Shinya Yamada, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Noriko Y. Yamasaki, Makoto Yamauchi, Shigeo Yamauchi, Tahir Yaqoob, Yoichi Yatsu, Daisuke Yonetoku, Atsumasa Yoshida, Irina Zhuravleva, Abderahmen Zoghbi
The Astrophysical Journal, 837(1) L15-L15, Jul 25, 2016
High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with Hitomi was expected to resolve the
origin of the faint unidentified E=3.5 keV emission line reported in several
low-resolution studies of various massive systems, such as galaxies and
clusters, including the Perseus cluster. We have analyzed the Hitomi
first-light observation of the Perseus cluster. The emission line expected for
Perseus based on the XMM-Newton signal from the large cluster sample under the
dark matter decay scenario is too faint to be detectable in the Hitomi data.
However, the previously reported 3.5 keV flux from Perseus was anomalously high
compared to the sample-based prediction. We find no unidentified line at the
reported high flux level. Taking into account the XMM measurement uncertainties
for this region, the inconsistency with Hitomi is at a 99% significance for a
broad dark-matter line and at 99.7% for a narrow line from the gas. We do not
find anomalously high fluxes of the nearby faint K line or the Ar satellite
line that were proposed as explanations for the earlier 3.5 keV detections. We
do find a hint of a broad excess near the energies of high-n transitions of
Sxvi (E=3.44 keV rest-frame) -- a possible signature of charge exchange in the
molecular nebula and another proposed explanation for the unidentified line.
While its energy is consistent with XMM pn detections, it is unlikely to
explain the MOS signal. A confirmation of this interesting feature has to wait
for a more sensitive observation with a future calorimeter experiment.