RECOMBINING PLASMA IN THE GAMMA-RAY-EMITTING MIXED-MORPHOLOGY SUPERNOVA REMNANT 3C 391

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Ergin T., Sezer A., Saha L., Majumdar P., Chatterjee A., Bayirli A., ...More

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, vol.790, no.1, 2014 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 790 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2014
  • Doi Number: 10.1088/0004-637x/790/1/65
  • Journal Name: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Keywords: gamma rays: ISM, ISM: clouds, ISM: individual objects (G31.9+0.0, 3C391), ISM: supernova remnants, X-rays: ISM, LARGE-AREA TELESCOPE, MHZ MASER EMISSION, FORMED DENSE SHELL, X-RAY, MOLECULAR CLOUDS, THERMAL CONDUCTION, FERMI-LAT, ASCA OBSERVATIONS, HOT INTERIOR, MODELING W44
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

A group of middle-aged mixed-morphology (MM) supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with molecular clouds (MCs) has been discovered to be strong GeV gamma-ray emitters by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi-LAT). The recent observations of the Suzaku X-ray satellite have revealed that some of these interacting gamma-ray-emitting SNRs, such as IC443, W49B, W44, and G359.1-0.5, have overionized plasmas. 3C 391 (G31.9+ 0.0) is another GalacticMMSNR interacting with MCs. It was observed in GeV gamma rays by Fermi-LAT as well as in the 0.3-10.0 keV X-ray band by Suzaku. In this work, 3C 391 was detected in GeV gamma rays with a significance of similar to 18 sigma and we showed that the GeV emission is point-like in nature. The GeV gamma-ray spectrum was shown to be best explained by the decay of neutral pions assuming that the protons follow a broken power-law distribution. We revealed radiative recombination structures of silicon and sulfur from 3C 391 using Suzaku data. In this paper, we discuss the possible origin of this type of radiative plasma and hadronic gamma rays.