TOWARD UNDERSTANDING THE COSMIC-RAY ACCELERATION AT YOUNG SUPERNOVA REMNANTS INTERACTING WITH INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS: POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS TO RX J1713.7−3946

By Tsuyoshi Inoue, R. Yamazaki, S. Inutsuka, Y. Fukui. 2011

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Using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate general properties of a blast wave shock interacting with interstellar clouds. The pre-shock cloudy medium is generated as a natural consequence of the thermal instability that simulates realistic clumpy interstellar clouds and their diffuse surrounding. The shock wave that sweeps the cloudy medium generates a turbulent shell through the vorticity generations that are induced by shock–cloud interactions. In the turbulent shell, the magnetic field is amplified as a result of turbulent dynamo action. The energy density of the amplified magnetic field can locally grow comparable to the thermal energy density, particularly at the transition layers between clouds and the diffuse surrounding. In the case of a young supernova remnant (SNR) with a shock velocity ≳ 103 km s−1, the corresponding strength of the magnetic field is approximately 1 mG. The propagation speed of the shock wave is significantly stalled in the clouds because of the high density, while the shock maintains a high velocity in the diffuse surrounding. In addition, when the shock wave hits the clouds, reflection shock waves are generated that propagate back into the shocked shell. From these simulation results, many observational characteristics of the young SNR RX J1713.7−3946 that is suggested to be interacting with molecular clouds can be explained as follows. The reflection shocks can accelerate particles in the turbulent downstream region where the magnetic field strength reaches 1 mG, which causes short-time variability of synchrotron X-rays. Since the shock velocity is stalled locally in the clouds, the temperature in the shocked cloud is suppressed far below 1 keV. Thus, thermal X-ray line emission would be faint even if the SNR is interacting with molecular clouds. We also find that the photon index of the π0-decay gamma rays generated by cosmic-ray protons can be 1.5 (corresponding energy flux is νFν∝ν0.5) because the penetration depth of high-energy particles into the clumpy clouds depends on their energy. This suggests that, if we rely only on the spectral study, the hadronic gamma-ray emission is indistinguishable from the leptonic inverse Compton emission. We propose that the spatial correlation of the gamma-ray, X-ray, and CO line-emission regions can be conclusively used to understand the origin of gamma rays from RX J1713.7−3946.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c17e534b5703c40a62982f869cc91a0291eb49f2

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

  1. Y. Fukui
  2. Tsuyoshi Inoue

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

  1. Y. Fukui
  2. Tsuyoshi Inoue

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