No Arabic abstract
The supernova remnant (SNR) RX J0852-4622 (Vela Jr., G266.6-1.2) is one of the most important SNRs for investigating the acceleration of multi-TeV particles and the origin of Galactic cosmic rays because of its strong synchrotron X-ray and TeV gamma-ray emission, which show a shell-like morphology similar to each other. Using the XMM-Newton archival data consisting of multiple pointing observations of the northwestern rim of the remnant, we investigate the spatial properties of the nonthermal X-ray emission as a function of distance from an outer shock wave. All X-ray spectra are well reproduced by an absorbed power-law model above 2 keV. It is found that the spectra show gradual softening from a photon index 2.56 in the rim region to 2.96 in the interior region. We show that this radial profile can be interpreted as a gradual decrease of the cutoff energy of the electron spectrum due to synchrotron cooling. By using a simple spectral evolution model that includes continuous synchrotron losses, the spectral softening can be reproduced with the magnetic field strength in the post-shock flow to less than several tens of uG. If this is a typical magnetic field in the SNR shell, gamma-ray emission would be accounted for by inverse Compton scattering of high-energy electrons that also produce the synchrotron X-ray emission. Future hard X-ray imaging observations with Nustar and ASTRO-H and TeV gamma-ray observations with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will allow to us to explore other possible explanations of the systematic softening of the X-ray spectra.
We conduct a multi-wavelength morphological study of the Galactic supernova remnant RXJ0852.0-4622 (also known as Vela Jr., Vela Z and G266.2-1.2). RX J0852.0-4622 is coincident with the edge of the larger Vela supernova remnant causing confusion in the attribution of some filamentary structures to either RX J0852.0-4622 or its larger sibling. We find that the RX J0852.0-4622 radio continuum emission can be characterised by a 2-dimensional shell with a radius of 0.90+/-0.01deg (or 11.8+/-0.6pc at an assumed distance of 750pc) centred at (l,b)=(133.08+/-0.01 deg,-46.34+/-0.01deg) (or RA=8h52m19.2s, Dec=-46deg2024.0, J2000), consistent with X-ray and gamma-ray emission. Although [OIII] emission features are generally associated with the Vela SNR, one particular [OIII] emission feature, which we denote as the Vela Claw, morphologically matches a molecular clump that is thought to have been stripped by the stellar progenitor of the RX J0852.0-4622 SNR. We argue that the Vela Claw feature is possibly associated with RX J0852.0-4622. Towards the north-western edge of RX J0852.0-4622, we find a flattening of the radio spectral index towards another molecular clump also thought to be associated with RX J0852.0-4622. It is currently unclear whether this feature and the Vela Claw result from interactions between the RX J0852.0-4622 shock and the ISM.
We searched for evidence of line emission around 4keV from the northwestern rim of the supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622 using Suzaku XIS data. Several papers have reported the detection of an emission line around 4.1keV from this region of the sky. This line would arise from K-band fluorescence by Sc, the immediate decay product of 44Ti. We performed spectral analysis for the entire portion of the NW rim of the remnant within the XIS field of view, as well as various regions corresponding to regions of published claims of line emission. We found no line emission around 4.1keV anywhere, and are able to set a restrictive upper limit to the X-ray flux: 1.1x10^-6 s^-1 cm^-2 for the entire field. For every region, our flux upper limit falls below that of the previously claimed detection. Therefore, we conclude that, to date, no definite X-ray line feature from Sc-K emission has been detected in the NW rim of RX J0852.0-4622. Our negative-detection supports the recent claim that RX J0852-4622 is neither young (1700--4000 yr) nor nearby(~750 pc).
The shell-type supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622 was detected in 2004 and re-observed between December 2004 and May 2005 with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes located in Namibia and dedicated to the observations of gamma-rays above 100 GeV. The angular resolution of <0.1 degree and the large field of view of H.E.S.S. (5 degrees diameter) are well adapted to studying the morphology of the object in very high energy gamma-rays, which exhibits a remarkably thin shell very similar to the features observed in the radio range and in X-rays. The spectral analysis of the source from 300 GeV to 20 TeV will be presented. Finally, the possible origins of the very high energy gamma-ray emission (Inverse Compton scattering by electrons or the decay of neutral pions produced by proton interactions) will be discussed, on the basis of morphological and spectral features obtained at different wavelengths.
The shocks of supernova remnants (SNRs) are believed to accelerate particles to cosmic ray (CR) energies. The amplification of the magnetic field due to CRs propagating in the shock region is expected to have an impact on both the emission from the accelerated particle population, as well as the acceleration process itself. Using a 95 ks observation with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) onboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory, we map and characterize the synchrotron emitting material in the northwestern region of RCW 86. We model spectra from several different regions, filamentary and diffuse alike, where emission appears dominated by synchrotron radiation. The fine spatial resolution of Chandra allows us to obtain accurate emission profiles across 3 different non-thermal rims in this region. The narrow width (l = 10-30) of these filaments constrains the minimum magnetic field strength at the post-shock region to be approximately 80 {mu}G.
We report the detection of TeV gamma-rays from the shell-type supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622 with data of 3.2 h of live time recorded with H.E.S.S. in February 2004. An excess of (700 +/- 60) events from the whole remnant with a significance of 12 sigma was found. The observed emission region is clearly extended with a radius of the order of 1 degree and the spatial distribution of the signal correlates with X-ray observations. The spectrum in the energy range between 500 GeV and 15 TeV is well described by a power law with a photon index of 2.1 +/- 0.1(stat) +/- 0.2(syst) and a differential flux at 1 TeV of (2.1 +/- 0.2(stat) +/- 0.6(syst)) 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^{-1} TeV^{-1}. The integral flux above 1 TeV was measured to be (1.9 +/- 0.3(stat) +/- 0.6(syst)) 10^{-11} cm^{-2} s^{-1}, which is at the level of the flux of the Crab nebula at these energies. More data are needed to draw firm conclusions on the magnetic field in the remnant and the type of the particle population creating the TeV gamma-rays.