X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Emission of the Shell-Type Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7-3946

Abstract

To study possible origins of high-energy gamma-ray emission from shell-type supernova remnants, RX J1713.7-3946, we model their nonthermal photon spectra from X-ray to very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray bands in the frame of non-linear diffusive shock acceleration, respectively. In our modeling, the accelerated proton spectrum is calculated based on a semi-analytical solution of the problem of particle acceleration at non-linear shock waves with a free escape boundary at some location upstream, and the accelerated electron spectrum is similar to the proton's spectrum when the electron's momentum is much less than its maximum momentum, which is determined by equating the synchrotron loss time with the acceleration time, and the cutoff shapes are assumed to be an super-exponential. In the one-zone model, we calculated the non-thermal photon spectra of the supernova remnants (SNR) for both leptonic and hadronic cases, and found out that the spectra calculated for both cases can reproduce the observed data by Suzaku, Fermi LAT, and HESS under reasonable model parameters. However, high-energy gamma-ray emission would have a hadronic origin if the observed thickness of the X-ray filament of the SNR is taken into account.