The multi-band nonthermal emission from the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946

TL;DR

This paper models the nonthermal emission from supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946, demonstrating that the observed TeV gamma-rays are likely produced by hadronic processes involving relativistic protons.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical model incorporating nonlinear shock acceleration to explain multi-band emissions, favoring a hadronic origin for the gamma-rays.

Findings

Multi-band observations fit well with the model parameters.

TeV gamma-rays are produced via proton-proton interactions.

The model supports a hadronic origin for the VHE gamma-rays.

Abstract

Nonthermal X-rays and very high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-rays have been detected from the supernova remnant (SNR) RX J1713.7-3946, and especially the recent observations with the \textit{Suzaku} satellite clearly reveal a spectral cutoff in the X-ray spectrum, which directly relates to the cutoff of the energy spectrum of the parent electrons. However, whether the origin of the VHE $\gamma$-rays from the SNR is hadronic or leptonic is still in debate. We studied the multi-band nonthermal emission from RX J1713.7-3946 based on a semi-analytical approach to the nonlinear shock acceleration process by including the contribution of the accelerated electrons to the nonthermal radiation. The results show that the multi-band observations on RX J1713.7-3946 can be well explained in the model with appropriate parameters and the TeV $\gamma$-rays have hadronic origin, i.e., they are produced via proton-proton (p-p) interactions as the relativistic protons accelerated at the shock collide with the ambient matter.