Temperature Equilibration Behind the Shock Front: an Optical and X-ray Study of RCW 86

Abstract

We study the electron-proton temperature equilibration behind several shocks of the RCW 86 supernova remnant. To measure the proton temperature, we use published and new optical spectra, all from different locations on the remnant. For each location, we determine the electron temperature from X-ray spectra, and correct for temperature equilibration between the shock front and the location of the X-ray spectrum. We confirm the result of previous studies that the electron and proton temperatures behind shock fronts are consistent with equilibration for slow shocks and deviate for faster shocks. However, we can not confirm the previously reported trend of the electron temperature to proton temperature ratio of 1/v^2.

Accepted for publication by ApJ, 8 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (7)

• A Physical Relationship Between Electron-Proton Temperature Equilibration and Mach Number in Fast Collisionless Shocks
• Measuring the cosmic ray acceleration efficiency of a supernova remnant
• Spatial Structure and Collisionless Electron Heating in Balmer-dominated Shocks
• The relation between post-shock temperature, cosmic-ray pressure and cosmic-ray escape for non-relativistic shocks
• On the plasma temperature in supernova remnants with cosmic-ray modified shocks
• XMM-Newton X-ray spectra of the SNR 0509-67.5: data and models
• Effects of Neutral Hydrogen on Cosmic Ray Precursors in Supernova Remnant Shock Waves

Cited by in corpus (20)

• The Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays
• Supernova remnants: the X-ray perspective
• Observational signatures of particle acceleration in supernova remnants
• Electron-Ion Temperature Equilibration in Collisionless Shocks: the Supernova Remnant-Solar Wind Connection
• RCW 86: A Type Ia Supernova in a Wind-Blown Bubble
• The gas-to-extinction ratio and the gas distribution in the Galaxy
• New Evidence for Efficient Collisionless Heating of Electrons at the Reverse Shock of a Young Supernova Remnant
• Time-resolved characterization of the formation of a collisionless shock
• On the electron-ion temperature ratio established by collisionless shocks
• Proper Motions of H-alpha filaments in the Supernova Remnant RCW 86
• HST-COS Observations of Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon and Nitrogen Emission from the SN 1987A Reverse Shock
• Electron-Ion Temperature Ratio in Astrophysical Shocks
• Parametric study of non-relativistic electrostatic shocks and the structure of their transition layer
• The Refined Shock Velocity of the X-Ray Filaments in the RCW 86 Northeast Rim
• The evolution of a slow electrostatic shock into a plasma shock mediated by electrostatic turbulence
• Reverse and Forward Shock X-ray Emission in an Evolutionary Model of Supernova Remnants undergoing Efficient Diffusive Shock Acceleration
• Cosmic Ray acceleration and Balmer emission from RCW 86 (G315.4-2.3)
• A Systematic Study of the Thermal and Nonthermal Emission in the Supernova Remnant RCW 86 with Suzaku
• Global Constraints on Diffusive Particle Acceleration by Strong Nonrelativistic Shocks
• Using optical lines to study particle acceleration at supernova remnants