* Astronomy

Title: A Chandra Observation of Supernova Remnant G350.1-0.3 and Its Central Compact Object
Authors: Igor Lovchinsky, Patrick Slane, Bryan Gaensler, John Patrick Hughes, C.-Y. Ng, Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway, Joseph Gelfand, Crystal Brogan

We present a new Chandra observation of supernova remnant (SNR) G350.1-0.3. The high resolution X-ray data reveal previously unresolved filamentary structures and allow us to perform detailed spectroscopy in the diffuse regions of this SNR. Spectral analysis demonstrates that the region of brightest emission is dominated by hot, metal-rich ejecta while the ambient material along the perimeter of the ejecta region and throughout the remnant's western half is mostly low-temperature, shocked interstellar/circumstellar medium (ISM/CSM) with solar-type composition. The data reveal that the emission extends far to the west of the ejecta region and imply a lower limit of 6.6 pc on the diameter of the source (at a distance of 4.5 kpc). We show that G350.1-0.3 is likely in the free expansion (ejecta-dominated) stage and calculate an age of 600-1200 years. The derived relationship between the shock velocity and the electron/proton temperature ratio is found to be entirely consistent with that of other SNRs. We perform spectral fits on the X-ray source XMMU J172054.5-372652, a candidate central compact object (CCO), and find that its spectral properties fall within the typical range of other CCOs. We also present archival 24 um data of G350.1-0.3 taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope during the MIPSGAL galactic survey and find that the infrared and X-ray morphologies are well-correlated. These results help to explain this remnant's peculiar asymmetries and shed new light on its dynamics and evolution.

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Title: 3D simulations of supernova remnants evolution including non-linear particle acceleration
Authors: Gilles Ferrand (SAp, AIME), Anne Decourchelle (SAp, AIME), Jean Ballet (SAp, AIME), Romain Teyssier (SAp, AIME), Federico Fraschetti (LUTH)

If a sizeable fraction of the energy of supernova remnant shocks is channelled into energetic particles (commonly identified with Galactic cosmic rays), then the morphological evolution of the remnants must be distinctly modified. Evidence of such modifications has been recently obtained with the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray satellites. To investigate these effects, we coupled a semi-analytical kinetic model of shock acceleration with a 3D hydrodynamic code (by means of an effective adiabatic index). This enables us to study the time-dependent compression of the region between the forward and reverse shocks due to the back reaction of accelerated particles, concomitantly with the development of the Rayleigh-Taylor hydrodynamic instability at the contact discontinuity. Density profiles depend critically on the injection level eta of particles: for eta up to about 10^-4 modifications are weak and progressive, for eta of the order of 10^-3 modifications are strong and immediate. Nevertheless, the extension of the Rayleigh-Taylor unstable region does not depend on the injection rate. A first comparison of our simulations with observations of Tycho's remnant strengthens the case for efficient acceleration of protons at the forward shock.

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Title: Distances to Two Galactic Supernova Remnants: G32.8-0.1 and G346.6-0.2
Authors: Jian-Wen Xu, Hui-Rong Zhang

There are either a near kinematic distance of 5.5 kpc or a far distance of 8.8 kpc for a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G32.8-0.1 derived by using the rotation curve of the Galaxy. Here we make sure that the remnant distance is the farther one 8.8 kpc through solving a group of equations for the shell-type remnants separately at the adiabatic-phase and the radiative-phase. For SNR G346.6-0.2 we determine its distance also the farther one 11 kpc rather than the nearer one 5.5 kpc.

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Title: A joint spectro-imaging analysis of the XMM-Newton and HESS observations of the supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946
Authors: F. Acero, J. Ballet, A. Decourchelle, M. Lemoine-Goumard, M. Ortega, E. Giacani, G. Dubner, G. Cassam-Chenai

The supernova remnant (SNR) RX J1713.7-3946 (also known as G347.3-0.5) is part of the class of remnants dominated by synchrotron emission in X-rays. It is also one of the few shell-type SNRs observed at TeV energies allowing to investigate particle acceleration at SNRs shock.
Our goal is to compare spatial and spectral properties of the remnant in X- and gamma-rays to understand the nature of the TeV emission. This requires to study the remnant at the same spatial scale at both energies. To complement the non-thermal spectrum of the remnant, we attempt to provide a reliable estimate for the radio flux density. In radio, we revisited ATCA data and used HI and mid-infrared observations to disentangle the thermal from the non-thermal emission. In X-rays, we produced a new mosaic of the remnant and degraded the spatial resolution of the X-ray data to the resolution of the HESS instrument to perform spatially resolved spectroscopy at the same spatial scale in X- and gamma-rays. Radial profiles were obtained to investigate the extension of the emission at both energies.
We found that part of the radio emission within the SNR contours is thermal in nature. Taking this into account, we provide new lower and upper limits for the integrated synchrotron flux of the remnant at 1.4 GHz of 22 Jy and 26 Jy respectively. In X-rays, we obtained the first full coverage of RX J1713.7-3946 with XMM-Newton. The spatial variation of the photon index seen at small scale in X-rays is smeared out at HESS resolution. A non-linear correlation between the X- and gamma-ray fluxes of the type Fx \propto Fg^2.41 is found.

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