Very high resolution calculations of very young supernova remnants

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1982

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7231-5_10· OSTI ID:6851404

Jones, E M; Smith, B W

After the supernova shock wave has swepted up about 8 to 10 stellar masses of interstellar material, the SNR structure is well described by blast wave theory. In fact, both numerical calculations of the early phases and small scale, laboratory simulations show transition to blast wave at 8 to 10 masses. In hindsight, we now know that the transition region between the photosphere (roughly 10/sup -9/ g/cm/sup 3/) and the circumstellar medium (10/sup -24/ g/cm/sup 3/) plays a crucial role. The shock wave is strongly accelerated down the density gradient, putting the shocked material behind into free expansion. When the shock encounters circumstellar material, it begins to decelerate. A second, reverse shock propagates into the stellar material that plows into the shocked circumstellar gas. All this happens on a timescale of days. The first attempts to include a description of the outer stellar envelop were aimed at analysis of the uv and X-Ray bursts produced when the shock wave reaches the photosphere. Falk and Arnett terminated their calculations before the shock reached the circumstellar gas. Chevalier mentions a reverse shock forming early but did not go into any details. We noticed and described the double-shock structure but, in hindsight, lacked sufficient resolution to produce the detailed structure between the shocks. Chevalier derived a similarity solution for the intershock region. In this paper we describe very high resolution calculations which reproduce and confirm the Chevalier similarity solution.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6851404
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-82-2989; CONF-820884-1; ON: DE83002080
• Resource Relation: Conference: International Astronomical Union symposium on supernova remnants and their X-ray emission, Venice, Italy, 29 Aug 1982
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
SUPERNOVAE
SHOCK WAVES
COSMIC GASES
COSMIC X-RAY BURSTS
PRESSURE GRADIENTS
RADIAL VELOCITY
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FLUIDS
GASES
STARS
VARIABLE STARS
VELOCITY
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources