EFFICIENT COSMIC RAY ACCELERATION, HYDRODYNAMICS, AND SELF-CONSISTENT THERMAL X-RAY EMISSION APPLIED TO SUPERNOVA REMNANT RX J1713.7-3946

Journal Article · Sat Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/712/1/287· OSTI ID:21394274

Ellison, Donald C ^[1]; Patnaude, Daniel J; Slane, Patrick; Raymond, John ^[2]

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1. Physics Department, North Carolina State University, Box 8202, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States)
2. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MS-3, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

We model the broadband emission from supernova remnant (SNR) RX J1713.7-3946 including, for the first time, a consistent calculation of thermal X-ray emission together with non-thermal emission in a nonlinear diffusive shock acceleration model. Our model tracks the evolution of the SNR including the plasma ionization state between the forward shock and the contact discontinuity. We use a plasma emissivity code to predict the thermal X-ray emission spectrum assuming the initially cold electrons are heated either by Coulomb collisions with the shock-heated protons (the slowest possible heating), or come into instant equilibration with the protons. For either electron heating model, electrons reach {approx}>10{sup 7} K rapidly and the X-ray line emission near 1 keV is more than 10 times as luminous as the underlying thermal bremsstrahlung continuum. Since recent Suzaku observations show no detectable line emission, this places strong constraints on the unshocked ambient medium density and on the relativistic electron-to-proton ratio. For the uniform circumstellar medium (CSM) models that we consider, the low densities and high relativistic electron-to-proton ratios required to match the Suzaku X-ray observations definitively rule out pion decay as the emission process producing GeV-TeV photons. We show that leptonic models, where inverse-Compton scattering against the cosmic background radiation dominates the GeV-TeV emission, produce better fits to the broadband thermal and non-thermal observations in a uniform CSM.

• OSTI ID: 21394274
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 712, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/712/1/287; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCELERATION
BACKGROUND RADIATION
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COMPTON EFFECT
COSMIC ELECTRONS
COSMIC PHOTONS
COSMIC PROTONS
EMISSION SPECTRA
GEV RANGE
HYDRODYNAMICS
IONIZATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTON EMISSION
PIONS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SHOCK WAVES
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
TEV RANGE
X RADIATION
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOSONS
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DECAY
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EMISSION
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FLUID MECHANICS
HADRONS
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MECHANICS
MESONS
NUCLEONS
PHOTONS
PROTONS
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
SECONDARY COSMIC RADIATION
SPECTRA