Spatially varying X-ray synchrotron emission in SN 1006

Abstract

A growing number of both galactic and extragalactic supernova remnants show non-thermal (non-plerionic) emission in the X-ray band. New synchrotron models, realized as SRESC and SRCUT in XSPEC 11, which use the radio spectral index and flux as inputs and include the full single-particle emissivity, have demonstrated that synchrotron emission is capable of producing the spectra of dominantly non-thermal supernova remnants with interesting consequences for residual thermal abundances and acceleration of particles. In addition, these models deliver a much better-constrained separation between the thermal and non-thermal components, whereas combining an unconstrained powerlaw with modern thermal models can produce a range of acceptable fits. While synchrotron emission can be approximated by a powerlaw over small ranges of energy, the synchrotron spectrum is in fact steepening over the X-ray band. Having demonstrated that the integrated spectrum of SN 1006, a remnant dominated by non-thermal emission, is well described by synchrotron models I now turn to spatially resolved observations of this well studied remnant. The synchrotron models make both spectral and spatial predictions, describing how the non-thermal emission varies across the remnant. Armed with spatially resolved non-thermal models and new thermal models such as VPSHOCK we can now dissect the inner workings of SN 1006.