CORRELATION OF SUPERNOVA REMNANT MASERS AND GAMMA-RAY SOURCES

Journal Article · Tue Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/706/2/L270· OSTI ID:21385089

Hewitt, John W ^[1]; Yusef-Zadeh, Farhad ^[2]; Wardle, Mark ^[3]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Stop 662.0, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)
3. Department of Physics and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 (Australia)

Supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with molecular clouds are potentially exciting systems in which to detect evidence of cosmic ray acceleration. Prominent gamma-ray emission is produced via the decay of neutral pions when cosmic rays encounter nearby dense clouds. In many of the SNRs coincident with gamma-ray sources, the presence of OH (1720 MHz) masers is used to identify interaction with dense gas and to provide a kinematic distance to the system. In this Letter we use statistical tests to demonstrate that there is a correlation between these masers and a class of GeV- to TeV-energy gamma-ray sources coincident with interacting remnants. For pion decay the gamma-ray luminosity provides a direct estimate of the local cosmic ray density. We find the cosmic ray density is enhanced by one to two orders of magnitude over the local solar value, comparable to X-ray-induced ionization in these remnants. The inferred ionization rates are sufficient to explain non-equilibrium chemistry in the post-shock gas, where high columns of hydroxyl are observed.

• OSTI ID: 21385089
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 706; ISSN 1538-4357
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCELERATION
AMPLIFIERS
BOSONS
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
EQUIPMENT
GAMMA RADIATION
GEV RANGE
HADRONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXIDES
IONIZATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LUMINOSITY
MASERS
MESONS
MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PIONS
PIONS NEUTRAL
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
RADIATIONS
SHOCK WAVES
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
TEV RANGE