Molecular and atomic gas in the young TeV γ-ray SNRs RX J1713.7-3946 and RX J0852.0-4622; evidence for the hadronic production of γ-rays

Abstract

The interstellar molecular clouds are the site of star formation and also the target for the cosmic ray protons to produce γ-rays via the hadronic process. The interstellar atomic gas is enveloping the molecular clouds and may also be dense enough to affect the γ-ray production. In this Chapter, some of the basic properties of the interstellar gas both in molecular and atomic forms will be reviewed. Then, it is presented that two young TeV γ-ray SNRs, RX J1713.7-3946 and RX J0852.0-4622, show good spatial correspondence between the γ-rays and the interstellar protons. The good spatial correspondence provides a support for the hadronic origin of the γ-rays in these SNRs. It is emphasized that both molecular and atomic hydrogen plays a role as targets for cosmic ray (CR) protons. The clumpy distribution of the target interstellar medium (ISM) protons is crucial in the interaction of the supernova shocks with the ISM, whereas models with uniform ISM distribution are not viable. Finally, it is suggested that the dense atomic gas without molecules may occupy the dominant part of the dark gas in the local ISM.

23 pages, 15 figures, To appear in "Cosmic Rays in Star-Forming Environments: Proceedings of the Second Session of the Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics" (April 16-19, 2012), Torres, Diego F. and Reimer, Olaf (Eds.)

References in corpus (17)

• Primary particle acceleration above 100 TeV in the shell-type Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with deep H.E.S.S. observations
• Toward Understanding the Cosmic-ray Acceleration at Young Supernova Remnants Interacting with Interstellar Clouds: Possible Applications to RX J1713.7-3946
• Analytical solutions for energy spectra of electrons accelerated by nonrelativistic shock-waves in shell type supernova remnants
• Observations of the young supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• H.E.S.S. observations of the supernova remnant RX J0852.0-4622: shell-type morphology and spectrum of a widely extended VHE gamma-ray source
• Inverse Compton Emission from Galactic Supernova Remnants: Effect of the Interstellar Radiation Field
• Study of Nonthermal Emission from SNR RX J1713.7-3946 with Suzaku
• Gamma rays from molecular clouds
• A Detailed Study of the Molecular and Atomic Gas Toward the γ-ray SNR RX J1713.7-3946: Spatial TeV γ-ray and ISM Gas Correspondence
• Gamma ray emission from SNR RX J1713.7-3946 and the origin of galactic cosmic rays
• Gamma-Ray Observations of the Supernova Remnant RX J0852.0-4622 with the Fermi LAT
• In which shell-type SNRs should we look for gamma-rays and neutrinos from p-p collisions?
• The Slow X-Ray Expansion of the Northwestern Rim of the Supernova Remnant RX J0852.0-4622
• The Transition from Atomic to Molecular Hydrogen in Interstellar Clouds: 21cm Signature of the Evolution of Cold Atomic Hydrogen in Dense Clouds
• Hadronic versus leptonic origin of the gamma-ray emission from Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7-3946
• Magnetic Field Amplification and Rapid Time Variations in SNR RX J1713.7-3946
• Sub-mm/mm studies of the molecular gas in the Galactic disk; the TeV gamma ray SNR RXJ1713.7-3946 and the W28 high mass star forming region

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Deeper H.E.S.S. observations of Vela Junior (RX J0852.0$-$4622): Morphology studies and resolved spectroscopy
• A detailed study of non-thermal X-ray properties and interstellar gas toward the γ-ray supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946
• Discovery of Molecular and Atomic Clouds Associated with the Magellanic Superbubble 30 Doradus C
• Prospects for CTA observations of the young SNR RX J1713.7-3946
• Detection of GeV $\gamma$-ray emission in the direction of HESS J1731-347 with Fermi-LAT
• Discovery of Shocked Molecular Clouds Associated with the Shell-Type Supernova Remnant RX J0046.5$-$7308 in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Suzaku observations of the hard X-ray spectrum of Vela Jr
• Constraining the coherence scale of the interstellar magnetic field using TeV gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants
• Simulating TeV gamma-ray morphologies of shell-type supernova remnants