High-energy Emission from Supernovae and Remnants

Abstract

An early burst of energetic radiation is expected from a supernova at the time of shock breakout. This emission has not been directly observed but has been inferred from the photoionization around SN 1987A. X-ray emission has been detected from core-collapse supernovae in the days to years after the explosion as they interact with their circumstellar winds. Young Galactic supernova remnants provide the possibility of determining the composition structure of the ejecta through X-ray spectroscopy. An exciting finding for older remnants is that a number of remnants that appear to be interacting with molecular gas may be sources of high-energy γ-ray emission. The clumpy structure of molecular clouds has implications for the structure expected in high-energy emission. Finally, the field of γ-ray-line spectroscopy is beginning to yield results relevant to the explosive nucleosynthesis of radionuclides in supernovae.