skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Deep morphological and spectral study of the SNR RCW 86 with Fermi-LAT

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1]
  1. Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

RCW 86 is a young supernova remnant (SNR) showing a shell-type structure at several wavelengths and is thought to be an efficient cosmic-ray (CR) accelerator. Earlier Fermi Large Area Telescope results reported the detection of γ-ray emission coincident with the position of RCW 86 but its origin (leptonic or hadronic) remained unclear due to the poor statistics. Thanks to 6.5 years of data acquired by the Fermi -LAT and the new event reconstruction Pass 8, we report the significant detection of spatially extended emission coming from RCW 86. The spectrum is described by a power-law function with a very hard photon index (Γ = 1.42±0.1stat ±0.06syst) in the 0.1–500 GeV range and an energy flux above 100 MeV of (2.91 ± 0.8stat ± 0.12syst) × 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1. Gathering all the available multiwavelength (MWL) data, we perform a broadband modeling of the nonthermal emission of RCW 86 to constrain parameters of the nearby medium and bring new hints about the origin of the γ-ray emission. For the whole SNR, the modeling favors a leptonic scenario in the framework of a two-zone model with an average magnetic field of 10.2 ± 0.7 μG and a limit on the maximum energy injected into protons of 2 × 1049 erg for a density of 1 cm-3. In addition, parameter values are derived for the North-East (NE) and South-West (SW) regions of RCW 86, providing the first indication of a higher magnetic field in the SW region.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1355683
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 819, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (40)

FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE THIRD SOURCE CATALOG journal June 2015
THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON ORBIT: EVENT CLASSIFICATION, INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS, AND CALIBRATION journal October 2012
Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy journal November 2011
Discovery of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Shell-Type Supernova Remnant rcw 86 with hess journal February 2009
Non-linear particle acceleration at non-relativistic shock waves in the presence of self-generated turbulence journal September 2006
THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION journal May 2009
X-ray synchrotron emission from supernova remnants journal January 2006
The acceleration of cosmic rays in shock fronts - I journal February 1978
The acceleration of cosmic rays in shock fronts - II journal March 1978
Turbulent amplification of magnetic field and diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic rays journal September 2004
Particle acceleration by astrophysical shocks journal April 1978
The many sides of RCW 86: a Type Ia supernova remnant evolving in its progenitor's wind bubble journal May 2014
Dynamical Effects of Self-Generated Magnetic Fields in Cosmic-Ray-modified Shocks journal May 2008
The Radio Structure of the Supernova Remnant G315.4−2.3 (MSH 14−6 3 ) journal January 2001
Broad-band non-thermal emission from molecular clouds illuminated by cosmic rays from nearby supernova remnants journal July 2009
Balmer‐dominated Spectra of Nonradiative Shocks in the Cygnus Loop, RCW 86, and Tycho Supernova Remnants journal February 2001
Origin of Cosmic Rays journal June 1961
Proper motions of Hα filaments in the supernova remnant RCW 86 journal August 2013
Measuring the Cosmic-Ray Acceleration Efficiency of a Supernova Remnant journal June 2009
Constraints on cosmic-ray efficiency in the supernova remnant RCW 86 using multi-wavelength observations journal August 2012
The identification of Balmer-dominated filaments in RCW 86 journal July 1990
Nonlinear theory of diffusive acceleration of particles by shock waves journal March 2001
The Likelihood Analysis of EGRET Data journal April 1996
A Catalogue of Radio Sources Between Declinations ?50° and ?80° journal January 1961
The second epoch Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey: compact source catalogue journal November 2007
H I SHELLS AND SUPERSHELLS IN THE I-GALFA H I 21 cm LINE SURVEY. I. FAST-EXPANDING H I SHELLS ASSOCIATED WITH SUPERNOVA REMNANTS journal October 2013
An X-ray study of the remnant of SN 185 A.D. journal February 1984
X‐Ray Synchrotron‐emitting Fe‐rich Ejecta in Supernova Remnant RCW 86 journal December 2002
A Catalogue of H -Emission Regions in the Southern Milky Way journal July 1960
The discovery of Balmer-Filaments Encercling SNR RCW 86 journal December 1997
High resolution spectroscopy of Balmer-dominated shocks in the RCW 86, Kepler and SN 1006 supernova remnants journal August 2003
The ASTRO-H X-ray astronomy satellite conference July 2014
A Suzaku Observation of the Low-Ionization Fe-Line Emission from RCW 86 journal January 2007
Supernova remnants: the X-ray perspective journal December 2011
The X-Ray Synchrotron Emission of RCW 86 and the Implications for Its Age journal August 2006
The MOST supernova remnant catalogue (MSC) journal August 1996
RCW 86: A TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA IN A WIND-BLOWN BUBBLE journal October 2011
Suzaku Observation of the RCW86 Northeastern Shell journal February 2008
Suzaku View of the Supernova Remnant RCW 86: X-Ray Studies of Newly-Discovered Fe-Rich Ejecta journal November 2011
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE DETECTION OF SUPERNOVA REMNANT RCW 86 journal April 2014

Cited By (10)

Evolution of High-energy Particle Distribution in Supernova Remnants journal March 2019
Possible Evidence for Cosmic-Ray Acceleration in the Type Ia SNR RCW 86: Spatial Correlation between TeV Gamma-Rays and Interstellar Atomic Protons journal April 2019
Electron Acceleration in Middle-age Shell-type γ -Ray Supernova Remnants journal April 2019
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources journal September 2017
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog journal March 2020
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog text January 2020
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources text January 2017
Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog collection January 2020
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources text January 2017
Evolution of high-energy particle distribution in Supernova Remnants text January 2018

Figures / Tables (14)

Fig. 1(p. 4)figure Fig. 1
Fig. 2(p. 4)figure Fig. 2
Fig. 3(p. 5)figure Fig. 3
Fig. 4(p. 5)figure Fig. 4
TABLE 1(p. 5)table TABLE 1
TABLE 2(p. 5)table TABLE 2
TABLE 3(p. 6)table TABLE 3
Fig. 5(p. 7)figure Fig. 5
Fig. 6(p. 8)figure Fig. 6
Fig. 7(p. 9)figure Fig. 7
Fig. 8(p. 9)figure Fig. 8
TABLE 4(p. 11)table TABLE 4
Fig. 9(p. 12)figure Fig. 9
Fig. 10(p. 13)figure Fig. 10

Similar Records

Deep morphological and spectral study of the SNR RCW 86 with Fermi-LAT
Journal Article · Thu Mar 10 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1355683
+17 more
Constraints on cosmic-ray efficiency in the supernova remnant RCW 86 using multi-wavelength observations
Journal Article · Fri Aug 31 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astronomy and Astrophysics · OSTI ID:1355683
+4 more
The likely Fermi detection of the supernova remnant RCW 103
Journal Article · Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1355683
+1 more

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS