An MHD study of SN 1006 and determination of the ambient magnetic field direction

TL;DR

This study uses MHD simulations to replicate SN 1006's observed morphology, revealing that the ambient magnetic field is likely perpendicular to the Galactic Plane, and introduces a density discontinuity to explain specific features.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel MHD modeling approach that incorporates a density discontinuity to better match observed features of SN 1006 and constrains the ambient magnetic field direction.

Findings

The ambient magnetic field is likely perpendicular to the Galactic Plane.

A density discontinuity explains the NW filament in optical and X-ray.

Models successfully reproduce radio and X-ray emission morphology.

Abstract

In this work we employ an MHD numerical code to reproduce the morphology observed for SN 1006 in radio synchrotron and thermal X-ray emission. We introduce a density discontinuity, in the form of a flat cloud parallel to the Galactic Plane, in order to explain the NW filament observed in optical wavelengths and in thermal X-rays. We compare our models with observations. We also perform a test that contrasts the radio emitting bright limbs of the SNR against the central region, finding additional support to our results. Our main conclusion is that the most probable direction of the ambient magnetic field is on average perpendicular to the Galactic Plane.