Images and Spectra of Synchrotron X-rays from Supernova Remnants: Effect of the Energy Dependence of the Diffusion Coefficient

Details Images and Spectra of Synchrotron X-rays from Supernova Remnants: Effect of the Energy Dependence of the Diffusion Coefficient Images and Spectra of Synchrotron X-rays from Supernova Remnants: Effect of the Energy Dependence of the Diffusion Coefficient

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001aas...19912620r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 199th AAS Meeting, #126.20; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1492

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Recent observations of nonthermal X-rays from supernova remnants have been attributed to synchrotron radiation from the loss-steepened tail of a nonthermal distribution of electrons accelerated at the remnant blast wave. In the test-particle limit of diffusive shock acceleration, in which the energy in shock-accelerated particles is unimportant, the slope of a shock-accelerated power-law is independent of the diffusion coefficient κ , and on how κ depends on particle energy. However, the maximum energy to which particles can be accelerated depends on the rate of acceleration, and that does depend on the energy-dependence of the diffusion coefficient. If the time to accelerate an electron from thermal energies to energy E >> me c2 is τ (E), and if κ Eβ , then τ (E) Eβ as well. Most work on shock acceleration has made the plausible assumption that κ rg (where rg is the particle gyroradius), so that β = 1 at relativistic energies. However, that choice corresponds to a particular (wavelength-independent) spectrum of MHD turbulence, where Kolmogorov or Kraichnan spectra might be more physically plausible. I derive the β -dependence of the maximum electron energy resulting from limitations due to radiative (synchrotron and inverse-Compton) losses and to finite remnant age (or size). I then exhibit calculations of synchrotron X-ray spectra, and model images, for supernova remnants as a function of β and compare to earlier β = 1 results. The dependences of spectra on shock velocity and magnetic-field strength are considerably altered for β != 1.

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