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Session 53 - SNs, Planetaries and Circumstellar Disks.
Display session, Wednesday, June 10
Atlas Ballroom,

[53.07] The RXTE X-Ray Spectrum of SN 1006 and the Implications for Cosmic-Ray Acceleration

G. E. Allen, R. Petre, E. V. Gotthelf (NASA/GSFC)

We present the RXTE high-energy X-ray spectrum of the supernova remnant SN 1006. The results of an analysis of the RXTE and ASCA data of this remnant support a previous report that the high-energy X-ray spectrum of the shell is dominated by synchrotron radiation from electrons that have been accelerated to energies as high as \sim 100 TeV. Furthermore, the results show that the non-thermal X-ray spectrum steepens with increasing energy as is expected for synchrotron emission. The recent detection of gamma rays at energies > 3 TeV from SN 1006 confirms that this remnant contains electrons that have been accelerated to very-high energies. While X-ray emission is observed from both the north-east and south-west rims of the remnant, no gamma-ray emission is observed from the south-west rim. We show that the RXTE X-ray data may or may not be consistent with the upper limit on the gamma-ray flux of the south-west rim. We review the radio through gamma-ray spectrum and discuss the implications of the data for Galactic cosmic-ray acceleration.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: glenn.allen@gsfc.nasa.gov

Program listing for Wednesday