Constraints on the diffusion and acceleration parameters in five young supernova remnants (SNRs) are derived from the observed thickness of their X-ray rims, as limited by the synchrotron losses of ...the highest energy electrons, assuming uniform and isotropic turbulence. From a joint study of the electrons diffusion and advection in the downstream medium of the shock, it is shown that the magnetic field must be amplified up to values between 250 and 500 μG in the case of Cas A, Kepler, and Tycho, or ${\sim} 100\,\mu$G in the case of SN 1006 and G347.3-0.5. The diffusion coefficient at the highest electron energy can also be derived from the data, by relating the X-ray energy cutoff to the acceleration timescale. Values typically between 1 and 10 times the Bohm diffusion coefficient are found to be required. We also find interesting constraints on the energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient, by requiring that the diffusion coefficient at the maximum proton energy be not smaller than the Bohm value in the amplified field. This favours diffusion regime between the Kraichnan and the Bohm regime, and rejects turbulence spectrum indices larger than ${\simeq} 3/2$. Finally, the maximum energy of the accelerated particles is found to lay between 1013 and $5\times 10^{13}$ eV for electrons, and around $Z\times 8\times 10^{14}$ eV at most for nuclei (or ∼2.5 times less if a Bohm diffusion regime is assumed), roughly independently of the compression ratio assumed at the shock. Even by taking advantage of the uncertainties on the measured parameters, it appears very difficult for the considered SNRs in their current stage of evolution to produce protons up to the knee of the cosmic-ray spectrum, at ${\sim} 3\times 10^{15}$ eV, and essentially impossible to accelerate Fe nuclei up to either the ankle at ${\sim} 3\times 10^{18}$ eV or the second knee at ${\sim} 5\times 10^{17}$ eV.
We consider the acceleration of charged particles near ultrarelativistic shocks, with Lorentz factor . We present simulations of the acceleration process and compare these with results from ...semi-analytical calculations. We show that the spectrum that results from acceleration near ultrarelativistic shocks is a power law, , with a nearly universal value for the slope of this power law. We confirm that the ultrarelativistic equivalent of the Fermi acceleration at a shock differs from its non-relativistic counterpart by the occurrence of large anisotropies in the distribution of the accelerated particles near the shock. In the rest frame of the upstream fluid, particles can only outrun the shock when their direction of motion lies within a small loss cone of opening angle around the shock normal. We also show that all physically plausible deflection or scattering mechanisms can change the upstream flight direction of relativistic particles originating from downstream by only a small amount: . This limits the energy change per shock crossing cycle to , except for the first cycle where particles originate upstream. In that case the upstream energy is boosted by a factor for those particles that are scattered back across the shock into the upstream region.
A significant fraction of the energy density of the interstellar medium is in the form of high-energy charged particles (cosmic rays). The origin of these particles remains uncertain. Although it is ...generally accepted that the only sources capable of supplying the energy required to accelerate the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are supernova explosions, and even though the mechanism of particle acceleration in expanding supernova remnant (SNR) shocks is thought to be well understood theoretically, unequivocal evidence for the production of high-energy particles in supernova shells has proven remarkably hard to find. Here we report on observations of the SNR RX J1713.7 - 3946 (G347.3 - 0.5), which was discovered by ROSAT in the X-ray spectrum and later claimed as a source of high-energy γ-rays of TeV energies (1 TeV = 1012 eV). We present a TeV γ-ray image of the SNR: the spatially resolved remnant has a shell morphology similar to that seen in X-rays, which demonstrates that very-high-energy particles are accelerated there. The energy spectrum indicates efficient acceleration of charged particles to energies beyond 100 TeV, consistent with current ideas of particle acceleration in young SNR shocks.
Very high energy γ-rays probe the long-standing mystery of the origin of cosmic rays. Produced in the interactions of accelerated particles in astrophysical objects, they can be used to image cosmic ...particle accelerators. A first sensitive survey of the inner part of the Milky Way with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) reveals a population of eight previously unknown firmly detected sources of very high energy γ-rays. At least two have no known radio or x-ray counterpart and may be representative of a new class of "dark" nucleonic cosmic ray sources.
We report on a survey of the inner part of the Galactic plane in very high energy gamma rays with the H.E.S.S. Cerenkov telescope system. The Galactic plane between +/-30° in longitude and +/-3° in ...latitude relative to the Galactic center was observed in 500 pointings for a total of 230 hr, reaching an average flux sensitivity of 2% of the Crab Nebula at energies above 200 GeV. Fourteen previously unknown sources were detected at a significance level greater than 4 σ after accounting for all trials involved in the search. Initial results on the eight most significant of these sources were already reported elsewhere (Aharonian and coworkers). Here we present detailed spectral and morphological information for all the new sources, along with a discussion on possible counterparts in other wavelength bands. The distribution in Galactic latitude of the detected sources appears to be consistent with a scale height in the Galactic disk for the parent population smaller than 100 pc, consistent with expectations for supernova remnants and/or pulsar wind nebulae.
Detection of Gamma Rays from a Starburst Galaxy Acero, F; Akhperjanian, A.G; Anton, G ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
11/2009, Letnik:
326, Številka:
5956
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Starburst galaxies exhibit in their central regions a highly increased rate of supernovae, the remnants of which are thought to accelerate energetic cosmic rays up to energies of approximately 10¹⁵ ...electron volts. We report the detection of gamma rays--tracers of such cosmic rays--from the starburst galaxy NGC 253 using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The gamma-ray flux above 220 billion electron volts is F = (5.5 ± 1.0stat ± 2.8sys) x 10⁻¹³ cm⁻² s⁻¹, implying a cosmic-ray density about three orders of magnitude larger than that in the center of the Milky Way. The fraction of cosmic-ray energy channeled into gamma rays in this starburst environment is five times as large as that in our Galaxy.
We consider the acceleration of charged particles at the ultrarelativistic shocks, with Lorentz factors Γs≫1 relative to the upstream medium, arising in relativistic fireball models of gamma-ray ...bursts (GRBs). We show that for Fermi-type shock acceleration, particles initially isotropic in the upstream medium can gain a factor of order Γs2 in energy in the first shock-crossing cycle, but that the energy gain factor for subsequent shock-crossing cycles is only of order 2, because for realistic deflection processes particles do not have time to become isotropic upstream before recrossing the shock. We evaluate the maximum energy attainable and the efficiency of this process, and show that for a GRB fireball expanding into a typical interstellar medium, these exclude the production of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with energies in the range 1018.5–1020.5 eV, by the blast wave. However, we propose that in the context of neutron-star binaries as the progenitors of GRBs, relativistic ions from the pulsar-wind bubbles produced by these systems could be accelerated by the blast wave. We show that if the known binary pulsars are typical, the maximum energy, efficiency, and spectrum in this case can account for the observed population of UHECRs.
We present infrared observations of the supernova remnant G21.5-0.9 with the Very Large Telescope, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Using the VLT/ISAAC camera ...equipped with a narrow-band Fe II 1.64 μm filter the entire pulsar wind nebula in SNR G21.5-0.9 was imaged. This led to detection of iron line-emitting material in the shape of a broken ring-like structure following the nebula’s edge. The detected emission is limb-brightened. We also detect the compact nebula surrounding PSR J1833-1034, both through imaging with the CFHT/AOB-KIR instrument (K′ band) and the IRAC camera (all bands) and also through polarimetric observations performed with VLT/ISAAC (Ks band). The emission from the compact nebula is highly polarised with an average value of the linear polarisation fraction \hbox{$P_{\mathrm{L}}^{\rm avg} \simeq 0.47$}PLavg≃0.47, and the swing of the electric vector across the nebula can be observed. The infrared spectrum of the compact nebula can be described as a power law of index αIR = 0.7 ± 0.3, and suggests that the spectrum flattens between the infrared and X-ray bands.
The Vela supernova remnant (SNR) is a complex region containing a number of sources of non-thermal radiation. The inner section of this SNR, within 2 degrees of the pulsar PSR B0833-45, has been ...observed by the HESS γ-ray atmospheric Cherenkov detector in 2004 and 2005. A strong signal is seen from an extended region to the south of the pulsar, within an integration region of radius $0.8\ensuremath{^{\circ}}$ around the position ($\rm \alpha = 08^{h} 35^{m} 00^{s}$, $\delta = -45\ensuremath{^{\circ}}36\arcmin$ J2000.0). The excess coincides with a region of hard X-ray emission seen by the ROSAT and ASCA satellites. The observed energy spectrum of the source between 550 GeV and 65 TeV is well fit by a power law function with photon index $\Gamma = 1.45 \pm 0.09\ensuremath{_{{\rm stat}}}\ \pm 0.2\ensuremath{_{{\rm sys}}}$ and an exponential cutoff at an energy of $13.8 \pm 2.3\ensuremath{_{{\rm stat}}}\ \pm 4.1\ensuremath{_{{\rm sys}}}$ TeV. The integral flux above 1 TeV is $(1.28 \pm 0.17\ensuremath{_{{\rm stat}}}\ \pm 0.38\ensuremath{_{{\rm sys}}}) \times 10^{-11}\ \ensuremath{{\rm cm}^{-2}\,{\rm s}^{-1}}$. This result is the first clear measurement of a peak in the spectral energy distribution from a VHE γ-ray source, likely related to inverse Compton emission. A fit of an Inverse Compton model to the HESS spectral energy distribution gives a total energy in non-thermal electrons of ~$2 \times 10^{45}$ erg between 5 TeV and 100 TeV, assuming a distance of 290 parsec to the pulsar. The best fit electron power law index is 2.0, with a spectral break at 67 TeV.
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