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J.L. Walters (Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), C.F. McKee (Depts of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), R.I. Klein (Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley and LLNL), J.R. Graham (Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), N.A. Levenson (Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins Univ.)
The nature of the medium into which supernova remnants (SNRs) expand determines the extent to which SNRs shape the interstellar medium as a whole; for example, dense regions may be compressed by shocks, encouraging star formation, and will influence the amount of interstellar medium (ISM) heated during the lifetime of the remnant. The surrounding medium may be studied through observations of evolved SNRs, whose dynamics are dominated by swept-up ISM, rather than ejecta. Evolved supernova remnants, such as the Cygnus Loop, are currently being observed extensively by new X-ray satellites (Chandra and XMM). Data obtained from these missions afford us a new opportunity to study the dynamics of evolved SNRs and their interaction with the ISM via high-resolution spectroscopic modelling.
We present detailed simulations of the X-ray emission from cloud-blast wave interactions representative of those observed in evolved SNRs. Two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations are carried out with an adaptive mesh refinement code developed at UC Berkeley and LLNL. A nonequilibrium ionization plasma code is used to predict high-resolution X-ray spectra, based on the results of the simulations. The models are compared with Chandra observations of a cloud-blast wave interaction at the Western Edge of the Cygnus Loop.
This research is supported by NASA grant NGT5-50253.