ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Constraints on cosmic-ray efficiency in the supernova remnant RCW 86 using multi-wavelength observations

81   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Marianne Lemoine-Goumard
 تاريخ النشر 2012
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

Several young supernova remnants (SNRs) have recently been detected in the high-energy and very-high-energy gamma-ray domains. As exemplified by RX J1713.7-3946, the nature of this emission has been hotly debated, and direct evidence for the efficient acceleration of cosmic-ray protons at the SNR shocks still remains elusive. We analyzed more than 40 months of data acquired by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope in the HE domain, and gathered all of the relevant multi-wavelength (from radio to VHE gamma-rays) information about the broadband nonthermal emission from RCW 86. For this purpose, we re-analyzed the archival X-ray data from the ASCA/Gas Imaging Spectrometer (GIS), the XMM-Newton/EPIC-MOS, and the RXTE/Proportional Counter Array (PCA). Beyond the expected Galactic diffuse background, no significant gamma-ray emission in the direction of RCW 86 is detected in any of the 0.1-1, 1-10 and 10-100 GeV Fermi-LAT maps. In the hadronic scenario, the derived HE upper limits together with the HESS measurements in the VHE domain can only be accommodated by a spectral index Gamma <= 1.8, i.e. a value in-between the standard (test-particle) index and the asymptotic limit of theoretical particle spectra in the case of strongly modified shocks. The interpretation of the gamma-ray emission by inverse Compton scattering of high energy electrons reproduces the multi-wavelength data using a reasonable value for the average magnetic field of 15-25 muG. For these two scenarios, we assessed the level of acceleration efficiency. We discuss these results in the light of existing estimates of the magnetic field strength, the effective density and the acceleration efficiency in RCW 86.

قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

285 - E.A. Helder 2013
We present a proper motion study of the eastern shock-region of the supernova remnant RCW 86 (MSH 14-63, G315.4-2.3), based on optical observations carried out with VLT/FORS2 in 2007 and 2010. For both the northeastern and southeastern regions, we me asure an average proper motion of H-alpha filaments of 0.10 +/- 0.02 arcsec/yr, corresponding to 1200 +/- 200 km/s at 2.5kpc. There is substantial variation in the derived proper motions, indicating shock velocities ranging from just below 700 km/s to above 2200 km/s. The optical proper motion is lower than the previously measured X-ray proper motion of northeastern region. The new measurements are consistent with the previously measured proton temperature of 2.3 +/- 0.3 keV, assuming no cosmic-ray acceleration. However, within the uncertainties, moderately efficient (< 27 per cent) shock acceleration is still possible. The combination of optical proper motion and proton temperature rule out the possibility that RCW 86 has a distance less than 1.5kpc. The similarity of the proper motions in the northeast and southeast is peculiar, given the different densities and X-ray emission properties of the regions. The northeastern region has lower densities and the X-ray emission is synchrotron dominated, suggesting that the shock velocities should be higher than in the southeastern, thermal X-ray dominated, region. A possible solution is that the H-alpha emitting filaments are biased toward denser regions, with lower shock velocities. Alternatively, in the northeast the shock velocity may have decreased rapidly during the past 200yr, and the X-ray synchrotron emission is an afterglow from a period when the shock velocity was higher.
In the past few years, gamma-ray astronomy has entered a golden age. At TeV energies, only a handful of sources were known a decade ago, but the current generation of ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes has increased this number to more than one hundred. At GeV energies, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has increased the number of known sources by nearly an order of magnitude in its first 2 years of operation. The recent detection and unprecedented morphological studies of gamma-ray emission from shell-type supernova remnants is of great interest, as these analyses are directly linked to the long standing issue of the origin of the cosmic-rays. However, these detections still do not constitute a conclusive proof that supernova remnants accelerate the bulk of Galactic cosmic-rays, mainly due to the difficulty of disentangling the hadronic and leptonic contributions to the observed gamma-ray emission. In this talk, I will review the most relevant cosmic ray related results of gamma ray astronomy concerning supernova remnants.
Diffusive shock acceleration by the shockwaves in supernova remnants (SNRs) is widely accepted as the dominant source for Galactic cosmic rays. However, it is unknown what determines the maximum energy of accelerated particles. The surrounding enviro nment could be one of the key parameters. The SNR RCW 86 shows both thermal and non-thermal X-ray emission with different spatial morphologies. These emission originate from the shock-heated plasma and accelerated electrons respectively, and their intensities reflect their density distributions. Thus, the remnant provides a suitable laboratory to test possible association between the acceleration efficiency and the environment. In this paper, we present results of spatially resolved spectroscopy of the entire remnant with Suzaku. The spacially-resolved spectra are well reproduced with a combination of a power-law for synchrotron emission and a two-component optically thin thermal plasma, corresponding to the shocked interstellar medium (ISM) with kT of 0.3-0.6 keV and Fe-dominated ejecta. It is discovered that the photon index of the nonthermal component becomes smaller with decreasing the emission measure of the shocked ISM, where the shock speed has remained high. This result implies that the maximum energy of accelerated electrons in RCW 86 is higher in the low-density and higher shock speed regions.
Context. Observation of Balmer lines from the region around the forward shock of supernova remnants (SNR) may provide valuable information on the shock dynamics and the efficiency of particle acceleration at the shock. Aims. We calculated the Balme r line emission and the shape of the broad Balmer line for parameter values suitable for SNR RCW 86 (G315.4-2.3) as a function of the cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration efficiency and of the level of thermal equilibration between electrons and protons behind the shock. This calculation aims at using the width of the broad Balmer-line emission to infer the CR acceleration efficiency in this remnant. Methods. We used the recently developed nonlinear theory of diffusive shock-acceleration in the presence of neutrals. The semianalytical approach we developed includes a description of magnetic field amplification as due to resonant streaming instability, the dynamical reaction of accelerated particles and the turbulent magnetic field on the shock, and all channels of interaction between neutral hydrogen atoms and background ions that are relevant for the shock dynamics. Results. We derive the CR acceleration efficiency in the SNR RCW 86 from the Balmer emission. Since our calculation used recent measurements of the shock proper motion, the results depend on the assumed distance to Earth. For a distance of 2 kpc the measured width of the broad Balmer line is compatible with the absence of CR acceleration. For a distance of 2.5 kpc, which is a widely used value in current literature, a CR acceleration efficiency of 5-30% is obtained, depending upon the electron-ion equilibration and the ionization fraction upstream of the shock. By combining information on Balmer emission with the measured value of the downstream electron temperature, we constrain the CR acceleration efficiency to be ~20%.
We present the results of a detailed investigation of the Galactic supernova remnant RCW 86 using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. RCW 86 is the probable remnant of SN 185 A.D, a supernova that likely exploded inside a wind-blown cavity. We use the XM M-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) to derive precise temperatures and ionization ages of the plasma, which are an indication of the interaction history of the remnant with the presumed cavity. We find that the spectra are well fitted by two non-equilibrium ionization models, which enables us to constrain the properties of the ejecta and interstellar matter plasma. Furthermore, we performed a principal component analysis on EPIC MOS and pn data to find regions with particular spectral properties. We present evidence that the shocked ejecta, emitting Fe-K and Si line emission, are confined to a shell of approximately 2 pc width with an oblate spheroidal morphology. Using detailed hydrodynamical simulations, we show that general dynamical and emission properties at different portions of the remnant can be well-reproduced by a type Ia supernova that exploded in a non-spherically symmetric wind-blown cavity. We also show that this cavity can be created using general wind properties for a single degenerate system. Our data and simulations provide further evidence that RCW 86 is indeed the remnant of SN 185, and is the likely result of a type Ia explosion of single degenerate origin.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا