Hard X-ray Emission and Efficient Particle Acceleration by Supernova Remnants

Journal Article · Mon May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3149426· OSTI ID:21304884

Vink, Jacco ^[1]

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1. Astronomical Institute Utrecht, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80000, 3508TA Utrecht (Netherlands)

I discuss the non-thermal X-ray emission from young supernova remnants. Over the last decade it has become clear from both X-ray and {gamma}-ray observations that young supernovae accelerate particles up to 100 TeV. In soft X-rays the accelerated >10 TeV electrons produce synchrotron radiation, coming from narrow filaments located at the shock fronts. The width of these filaments shows that the magnetic fields are relatively high, thus providing evidence for magnetic field amplification.The synchrotron radiation of several remnants is known to extend into the hard X-ray regime. In particular Cas A, has a spectrum that appears as a power law up to almost 100 TeV. This is very surprising, as a steepening is expected going from the soft to the hard X-ray band. The spectrum is likely a result of many superimposed individual spectra, each steepening at different energies. This implies considerable spatial variation in hard X-rays, an obvious target for Simbol-X. The variations will be important to infer local shock acceleration properties, but also magnetic field fluctuations may cause spatial and temporal variations.Finally, I draw the attention to super bubbles and supernovae as sources of cosmic rays. As such they may be sources of hard X-ray emission. In particular, supernovae exploding inside the dense red supergiants winds of their progenitors ares promising candidates for hard X-ray emission.

• OSTI ID: 21304884
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1126, Issue 1; Conference: 2. international Simbol-X symposium, Paris (France), 2-5 Dec 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3149426; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ACCELERATION
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC ELECTRONS
COSMIC PHOTONS
COSMIC RADIATION
FLUCTUATIONS
GAMMA RADIATION
HARD X RADIATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PHOTON EMISSION
SOFT X RADIATION
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
SUPERNOVAE
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
TELESCOPE COUNTERS
TEV RANGE
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY