High-energy particle acceleration at the radio-lobe shock of Centaurus A

TL;DR

This study uses Chandra X-ray data to show that the shock around Centaurus A's radio lobe accelerates particles to X-ray emitting energies via synchrotron processes, with implications for cosmic rays and TeV emission.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of synchrotron X-ray emission from the lobe shock, challenging previous thermal interpretations and constraining particle acceleration parameters.

Findings

X-ray emission is predominantly synchrotron, not thermal.

Lobe expansion velocity is approximately 2600 km/s, Mach 8.

Maximum particle energy (gamma_max) is about 10^8, consistent with shock acceleration theory.

Abstract

We present new results on the shock around the southwest radio lobe of Centaurus A using data from the Chandra Very Large Programme observations. The X-ray spectrum of the emission around the outer southwestern edge of the lobe is well described by a single power-law model with Galactic absorption -- thermal models are strongly disfavoured, except in the region closest to the nucleus. We conclude that a significant fraction of the X-ray emission around the southwest part of the lobe is synchrotron, not thermal. We infer that in the region where the shock is strongest and the ambient gas density lowest, the inflation of the lobe is accelerating particles to X-ray synchrotron emitting energies, similar to supernova remnants such as SN1006. This interpretation resolves a problem of our earlier, purely thermal, interpretation for this emission, namely that the density compression across the shock was required to be much larger than the theoretically expected factor of 4. We estimate that the lobe is expanding to the southwest with a velocity of ~2600 km/s, roughly Mach 8 relative to the ambient medium. We discuss the spatial variation of spectral index across the shock region, concluding that our observations constrain gamma_max for the accelerated particles to be 10^8 at the strongest part of the shock, consistent with expectations from diffusive shock acceleration theory. Finally, we consider the implications of these results for the production of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and TeV emission from Centaurus A, concluding that the shock front region is unlikely to be a significant source of UHECRs, but that TeV emission from this region is expected at levels comparable to current limits at TeV energies, for plausible assumed magnetic field strengths.