Waves at Oblique Shocks and the Highest Cosmic Ray Energies in Tychos SNR
Abstract
We describe a new model for the stripes of synchrotron radiation seen in the remnant of Tychos supernova, in terms of Alfven wave generation by the Bell Instability, followed by reflection, refraction and damping at an oblique shock. Based on estimates for damping rates due to turbulent cascade and transit time damping, we estimate the dependence of the visibility of the stripes on the shock obliquity, and determine a maximum cosmic ray energy in Tychos SNR in the range 6 x 1014 - 1 x 1015 eV, close to the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum. With such an understanding, synchrotron stripes ought in principle to be more commonly seen in SNRs, and should constitute a prime science topic for any future X-ray astronomy observatory.
- Publication:
-
X-Ray Vision Workshop: Probing the Universe in Depth and Detail with the X-Ray Surveyor
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- DOI:
- 10.5281/zenodo.47271
- Bibcode:
- 2015xrvw.confE..10L
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmic rays;
- X-ray astronomy;
- Zenodo community xrayvision