Evolution and observational signatures of the cosmic ray electron spectrum in SN 1006. Issue 2 (2nd October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Winner, Georg; Pfrommer, Christoph; Girichidis, Philipp; Werhahn, Maria; Pais, Matteo
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 499:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 2785
• Page End: 2802
• Publication Date: 2020-10-02
• Subjects: acceleration of particles -- MHD -- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal -- shock waves -- methods: numerical -- cosmic rays; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa2989
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Supernova remnants (SNRs) are believed to be the source of Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). SNR shocks accelerate CR protons and electrons which reveal key insights into the non-thermal physics by means of their synchrotron and γ-ray emission. The remnant SN 1006 is an ideal particle acceleration laboratory because it is observed across all electromagnetic wavelengths from radio to γ-rays. We perform 3D magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations where we include CR protons and follow the CR electron spectrum. By matching the observed morphology and non-thermal spectrum of SN 1006 in radio, X-rays, and γ-rays, we gain new insight into CR electron acceleration and magnetic field amplification. (1) We show that a mixed leptonic–hadronic model is responsible for the γ-ray radiation: while leptonic inverse-Compton emission and hadronic pion-decay emission contribute equally at GeV energies observed by Fermi, TeV energies observed by imaging air Cherenkov telescopes are hadronically dominated. (2) We show that quasi-parallel acceleration (i.e. when the shock propagates at a narrow angle to the upstream magnetic field) is preferred for CR electrons and that the electron acceleration efficiency of radio-emitting GeV electrons at quasi-perpendicular shocks is suppressed at least by a factor ten. This precludes extrapolation of current 1D plasma particle-in-cell simulations of shock acceleration to realistic SNR conditions. (3) To match the radial emission profiles and the γ-ray spectrum, we require a volume-filling, turbulently amplified magnetic field and that the Bell-amplified magnetic field is damped in the immediate post-shock region. Our work connects microscale plasma physics simulations to the scale of SNRs.