ENERGY PARTITION BETWEEN ENERGETIC ELECTRONS AND TURBULENT MAGNETIC FIELD IN SUPERNOVA REMNANT RX J1713.7-3946

Journal Article · Tue Aug 20 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/2/138· OSTI ID:22130959

Chuyuan, Yang

Current observations of supernova remnant (SNR) RX J1713.7-3946 favor the leptonic scenario for the TeV emission, where the radio to X-ray emission is produced via the synchrotron process and the {gamma}-ray emission is produced via the inverse Comptonization of soft background photons, and the electron distribution can be inferred from the observed {gamma}-ray spectrum with a spectral inversion method. It is shown that the observed correlation between the X-ray and {gamma}-ray brightness of SNR RX J1713.7-3946 can be readily explained with the assumption that the energy density of energetic electrons is proportional to that of the magnetic field in such a scenario. A two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation is then carried out to model the overall emission spectrum. It is found that the total energy of electrons above {approx}1 GeV is equal to that of the magnetic field. This is the first piece of observational evidence for energy equipartition between energetic electrons and magnetic field in the downstream of strong collisionless astrophysical shocks of SNRs.

• OSTI ID: 22130959
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 773; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EMISSION SPECTRA
ENERGY DENSITY
GAMMA RADIATION
GEV RANGE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
PHOTONS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
SYNCHROTRONS
TAIL ELECTRONS
TEV RANGE
TURBULENCE
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
X RADIATION