Gamma ray emission from SNR RX J1713.7-3946 and the origin of galactic cosmic rays

TL;DR

This paper models gamma-ray emissions from SNR RX J1713.7-3946 using non-linear particle acceleration theory, exploring the origin of galactic cosmic rays and the nature of observed high-energy emissions.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent calculation of non-thermal radiation from the remnant, incorporating magnetic field generation and particle acceleration, and compares hadronic and leptonic emission scenarios.

Findings

Magnetic fields of ~100 μG are compatible with X-ray filaments being due to synchrotron losses.

HESS gamma-ray data can be fitted with a leptonic model but requires high photon densities.

Current observations do not conclusively determine if the remnant is an efficient cosmic ray accelerator.

Abstract

We calculate the flux of non-thermal radiations from the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 in the context of the non-linear theory of particle acceleration at shocks, which allows us to take into account self-consistently the dynamical reaction of the accelerated particles, the generation of magnetic fields in the shock proximity and the dynamical reaction of the magnetic field on the plasma. When the fraction of particles which get accelerated is of order $\sim 10^{-4}$, we find that the strength of the magnetic field obtained as a result of streaming instability induced by cosmic rays is compatible with the interpretation of the X-ray emitting filaments being produced by strong synchrotron losses in $\sim 100 \mu G$ magnetic fields. If the X-ray filaments are explained in alternative ways, the constraint on the magnetic field downstream of the shock disappears and the HESS data can be marginally fit with ICS of relativistic electrons off a complex population of photons, tailored to comprise CMB and ambient IR/Optical photons. The fit, typically poor at the highest energies, requires a large density of target photons within the remnant; only a fraction of order $\sim 10^{-6}$ of the background particles gets accelerated; the local magnetic field is of order $\sim 20\mu G$ and the maximum energy of protons is much lower than the knee energy. Current HESS gamma ray observations combined with recent X-ray observations by Suzaku do not allow as yet to draw a definitive conclusion on whether RX J1713.7-3946 is an efficient cosmic ray accelerator, although at the present time a hadronic interpretation of HESS data seems more likely. We discuss the implications of our results for the GLAST gamma ray telescope, which should be able to discriminate the two scenarios discussed above.