Extremely fast acceleration of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant

Details Extremely fast acceleration of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant Extremely fast acceleration of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007natur.449..576u&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 449, Issue 7162, pp. 576-578 (2007).

Physics

136

Scientific paper

Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) are widely believed to be accelerated by shock waves associated with the expansion of supernova ejecta into the interstellar medium. A key issue in this long-standing conjecture is a theoretical prediction that the interstellar magnetic field can be substantially amplified at the shock of a young supernova remnant (SNR) through magnetohydrodynamic waves generated by cosmic rays. Here we report a discovery of the brightening and decay of X-ray hot spots in the shell of the SNR RXJ1713.7-3946 on a one-year timescale. This rapid variability shows that the X-rays are produced by ultrarelativistic electrons through a synchrotron process and that electron acceleration does indeed take place in a strongly magnetized environment, indicating amplification of the magnetic field by a factor of more than 100. The X-ray variability also implies that we have witnessed the ongoing shock-acceleration of electrons in real time. Independently, broadband X-ray spectrometric measurements of RXJ1713.7-3946 indicate that electron acceleration proceeds in the most effective (`Bohm-diffusion') regime. Taken together, these two results provide a strong argument for acceleration of protons and nuclei to energies of 1PeV (1015eV) and beyond in young supernova remnants.

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