No Arabic abstract
Some core-collapse supernovae are likely to be efficient cosmic-ray accelerators up to the PeV range, and therefore, to potentially play an important role in the overall Galactic cosmic-ray population. The TeV gamma-ray domain can be used to study particle acceleration in the multi-TeV and PeV range. This motivates the study of the detectability of such supernovae by current and future gamma-ray facilities. The gamma-ray emission of core-collapse supernovae strongly depends on the level of the two-photon annihilation process: high-energy gamma-ray photons emitted at the expanding shock wave following the supernova explosion can interact with soft photons from the supernova photosphere through the pair production channel, thereby strongly suppressing the flux of gamma rays leaving the system. In the case of SN 1993J, whose photospheric and shock-related parameters are well measured, we calculate the temporal evolution of the expected gamma-ray attenuation by accounting for the temporal and geometrical effects. We find the attenuation to be of about $10$ orders of magnitude in the first few days after the SN explosion. The probability of detection of a supernova similar to SN 1993J with the Cherenkov Telescope Array is highest if observations are performed either earlier than 1 day, or later than 10 days after the explosion, when the gamma-ray attenuation decreases to about $2$ orders of magnitude.
Young core-collapse supernovae with dense-wind progenitors may be able to accelerate cosmic-ray hadrons beyond the knee of the cosmic-ray spectrum, and this may result in measurable gamma-ray emission. We searched for gamma-ray emission from ten supernovae observed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) within a year of the supernova event. Nine supernovae were observed serendipitously in the H.E.S.S. data collected between December 2003 and December 2014, with exposure times ranging from 1.4 hours to 53 hours. In addition we observed SN 2016adj as a target of opportunity in February 2016 for 13 hours. No significant gamma-ray emission has been detected for any of the objects, and upper limits on the $>1$ TeV gamma-ray flux of the order of $sim$10$^{-13}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ are established, corresponding to upper limits on the luminosities in the range $sim$2 $times$ 10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ to $sim$1 $times$ 10$^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$. These values are used to place model-dependent constraints on the mass-loss rates of the progenitor stars, implying upper limits between $sim$2 $times 10^{-5}$ and $sim$2 $times 10^{-3}$M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ under reasonable assumptions on the particle acceleration parameters.
While the youngest known supernova remnants, such as Cassiopeia A, have been proven to be able to accelerate cosmic rays only up to $sim$10$^{14},mathrm{eV}$ at their present evolutionary stages, recent studies have shown that particle energies larger than a few PeV ($10^{15},mathrm{eV}$) could be reached during the early stages of a core-collapse Supernova, when the high-velocity forward shock expands into the dense circumstellar medium shaped by the stellar progenitor wind. Such environments, in particular the type IIn SNe whose progenitors may exhibit mass-loss rates as high as $10^{-2}M_odot,mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ cite{smith14}, could thus lead to $gamma$-ray emission from $pi^0$ decay in hadronic interactions, potentially detectable with current Cherenkov telescopes at very-high energies. Such a detection would provide direct evidence for efficient acceleration of CR protons/nuclei in supernovae, and hence new insights on the long-standing issue of the origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays. In that context, the High Energy Stereoscopic System (hess) has been carrying out a Target of Opportunity program since 2016 to search for such an early very-high-energy $gamma$-ray emission towards nearby core-collapse supernovae and supernova candidates (up to $sim 10~mathrm{Mpc}$), within a few weeks after discovery. After giving an overview of this hess Target of Opportunity program, we present the results obtained from the July 2019 observations towards the transient at, originally classified as a type IIn supernova, which occurred in the galaxy M74 at $sim 9.8,mathrm{Mpc}$. Although its nature still remains unclear, the derived hess constraints on this transient are placed in the general context of the expected VHE $gamma$-ray emission from core-collapse supernovae.
During the first few hundred days after the explosion, core-collapse supernovae (SNe) emit down-scattered X-rays and gamma-rays originating from radioactive line emissions, primarily from the $^{56}$Ni $rightarrow$ $^{56}$Co $rightarrow$ $^{56}$Fe chain. We use SN models based on three-dimensional neutrino-driven explosion simulations of single stars and mergers to compute this emission and compare the predictions with observations of SN 1987A. A number of models are clearly excluded, showing that high-energy emission is a powerful way of discriminating between models. The best models are almost consistent with the observations, but differences that cannot be matched by a suitable choice of viewing angle are evident. Therefore, our self-consistent models suggest that neutrino-driven explosions are able to produce, in principle, sufficient mixing, although remaining discrepancies may require small changes to the progenitor structures. The soft X-ray cutoff is primarily determined by the metallicity of the progenitor envelope. The main effect of asymmetries is to vary the flux level by a factor of ${sim}$3. For the more asymmetric models, the shapes of the light curves also change. In addition to the models of SN 1987A, we investigate two models of Type II-P SNe and one model of a stripped-envelope Type IIb SN. The Type II-P models have similar observables as the models of SN 1987A, but the stripped-envelope SN model is significantly more luminous and evolves faster. Finally, we make simple predictions for future observations of nearby SNe.
Ground-based optical spectra and Hubble Space Telescope images of ten core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) obtained several years to decades after outburst are analyzed with the aim of understanding the general properties of their late-time emissions. New observations of SN 1957D, 1970G, 1980K, and 1993J are included as part of the study. Blueshifted line emissions in oxygen and/or hydrogen with conspicuous line substructure are a common and long-lasting phenomenon in the late-time spectra. Followed through multiple epochs, changes in the relative strengths and velocity widths of the emission lines are consistent with expectations for emissions produced by interaction between SN ejecta and the progenitor stars circumstellar material. The most distinct trend is an increase in the strength of [O III]/([O I]+[O II]) with age, and a decline in Halpha/([O I]+[O II]) which is broadly consistent with the view that the reverse shock has passed through the H envelope of the ejecta in many of these objects. We also present a spatially integrated spectrum of the young Galactic supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). Similarities observed between the emission line profiles of the 330 yr old Cas A remnant and decades old CCSNe suggest that observed emission line asymmetry in evolved CCSN spectra may be associated with dust in the ejecta, and that minor peak substructure typically interpreted as clumps or blobs of ejecta may instead be linked with large-scale rings of SN debris.
Light axion-like particles (ALPs) are expected to be abundantly produced in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), resulting in a $sim$10-second long burst of ALPs. These particles subsequently undergo conversion into gamma-rays in external magnetic fields to produce a long gamma-ray burst (GRB) with a characteristic spectrum peaking in the 30--100-MeV energy range. At the same time, CCSNe are invoked as progenitors of {it ordinary} long GRBs, rendering it relevant to conduct a comprehensive search for ALP spectral signatures using the observations of long GRB with the textit{Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT). We perform a data-driven sensitivity analysis to determine CCSN distances for which a detection of an ALP signal is possible with the LATs low-energy (LLE) technique which, in contrast to the standard LAT analysis, allows for a a larger effective area for energies down to 30~MeV. Assuming an ALP mass $m_a lesssim 10^{-10}$~eV and ALP-photon coupling $g_{agamma} = 5.3times 10^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$, values considered and deduced in ALP searches from SN1987A, we find that the distance limit ranges from $sim!0.5$ to $sim!10$~Mpc, depending on the sky location and the CCSN progenitor mass. Furthermore, we select a candidate sample of twenty-four GRBs and carry out a model comparison analysis in which we consider different GRB spectral models with and without an ALP signal component. We find that the inclusion of an ALP contribution does not result in any statistically significant improvement of the fits to the data. We discuss the statistical method used in our analysis and the underlying physical assumptions, the feasibility of setting upper limits on the ALP-photon coupling, and give an outlook on future telescopes in the context of ALP searches.