Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-09-15
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Submitted to ApJ Letters. 5 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables
Scientific paper
Supernova remnants interacting with molecular clouds are potentially exciting systems in which to detect evidence of cosmic ray acceleration. Prominent gamma-ray emission is produced via the decay of neutral pions when cosmic rays encounter the nearby dense clouds. In many of the supernova remnants coincident with gamma-ray sources, the presence of OH(1720 MHz) masers is used to identify interaction with dense gas and to provide a kinematic distance to the system. In this paper we use statistical tests to demonstrate that there is a correlation between these masers and a class of GeV- to TeV-energy gamma-ray sources coincident with interacting remnants. For pion decay, the gamma-ray luminosity provides a direct estimate of the local cosmic ray density. We find the cosmic ray density is enhanced by one to two orders of magnitude over the local solar value, comparable to X-ray-induced ionization in these remnants. The inferred ionization rates are sufficient to explain non-equilibrium chemistry in the post-shock gas, where high columns of hydroxyl are observed.
Hewitt John W.
Wardle Mark
Yusef-Zadeh Farhad
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