Thermal emission, shock modification, and X-ray emitting ejecta in SN 1006

TL;DR

This study analyzes XMM-Newton data of SN 1006 to map thermal and non-thermal X-ray emissions, revealing shock modification and ejecta properties, and comparing observations with 3D MHD models to understand particle acceleration effects.

Contribution

It provides a spatially resolved thermal emission map of SN 1006, demonstrating shock modification and anisotropies in ejecta properties, advancing understanding of supernova remnant physics.

Findings

Thermal X-ray emission associated with ejecta shows azimuthal variations.

Shock is modified across the entire rim of SN 1006.

The shock's aspect angle is significantly less than 90 degrees.

Abstract

Efficient particle acceleration can modify the structure of supernova remnants. In this context we present the results of the combined analysis of the XMM-Newton EPIC archive observations of SN 1006. We aim at describing the spatial distribution of the physical and chemical properties of the X-ray emitting plasma at the shock front. We investigate the contribution of thermal and non-thermal emission to the X-ray spectrum at the rim of the remnant to study how the acceleration processes affect the X-ray emitting plasma. We perform a spatially resolved spectral analysis on a set of regions covering the whole rim of the shell and we exploit the results of the spectral analysis to produce a count-rate image of the "pure" thermal emission of SN 1006 in the 0.5-0.8 keV energy band (subtracting the non-thermal contribution). This image significantly differs from the total image in the same band, specially near the bright limbs. We find that thermal X-ray emission can be associated with the ejecta and we study the azimuthal variation of their physical and chemical properties finding anisotropies in temperature and chemical composition. Thanks to our thermal image we trace the position of the contact discontinuity over the whole shell and we compare it with that expected from 3-D MHD models of SNRs with unmodified shock. We conclude that the shock is modified everywhere in the rim and that the aspect angle between the interstellar magnetic field and the line of sight is significantly lower than 90 degrees