Supernova Remnants Interacting with Molecular Clouds: X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Signatures
Name
11214_2014_62_ReferencePDF.pdf
Size
6.14 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b4c3077a484ff8a84ae0dbef48972df1
Author(s)
Slane, Patrick
Bykov, Andrei
Ellison, Donald C.
Dubner, Gloria
Castro, Daniel
Date Issued
July 2014
Journal
Space Science Reviews
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Citation
Slane, Patrick, Andrei Bykov, Donald C. Ellison, Gloria Dubner, and Daniel Castro. “Supernova Remnants Interacting with Molecular Clouds: X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Signatures.” Space Sci Rev 188, no. 1–4 (July 9, 2014): 187–210.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The giant molecular clouds (MCs) found in the Milky Way and similar galaxies play a crucial role in the evolution of these systems. The supernova explosions that mark the death of massive stars in these regions often lead to interactions between the supernova remnants (SNRs) and the clouds. These interactions have a profound effect on our understanding of SNRs. Shocks in SNRs should be capable of accelerating particles to cosmic ray (CR) energies with efficiencies high enough to power Galactic CRs. X-ray and γ-ray studies have established the presence of relativistic electrons and protons in some SNRs and provided strong evidence for diffusive shock acceleration as the primary acceleration mechanism, including strongly amplified magnetic fields, temperature and ionization effects on the shock-heated plasmas, and modifications to the dynamical evolution of some systems. Because protons dominate the overall energetics of the CRs, it is crucial to understand this hadronic component even though electrons are much more efficient radiators and it can be difficult to identify the hadronic component. However, near MCs the densities are sufficiently high to allow the γ-ray emission to be dominated by protons. Thus, these interaction sites provide some of our best opportunities to constrain the overall energetics of these particle accelerators. Here we summarize some key properties of interactions between SNRs and MCs, with an emphasis on recent X-ray and γ-ray studies that are providing important constraints on our understanding of cosmic rays in our Galaxy.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0062-6
