Broad-band Observations and Modeling of the Shell-Type Supernova Remnant G347.3-0.5

Abstract

The supernova remnant G347.3--0.5 emits a featureless power-law in X-rays, thought to indicate shock-acceleration of electrons to high energies. We here produce a broad-band spectrum of the bright NW limb of this source by combining radio observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), X-ray observations from the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), and TeV gamma-ray observations from the CANGAROO imaging Cerenkov telescope. We assume this emission is produced by an electron population generated by diffusive shock acceleration at the remnant forward shock. The nonlinear aspects of the particle acceleration force a connection between the widely different wavelength bands and between the electrons and the unseen ions, presumably accelerated simultaneously with the electrons. This allows us to infer the relativistic proton spectrum and estimate ambient parameters such as the supernova explosion energy, magnetic field, matter density in the emission region, and efficiency of the shock acceleration process. We find convincing evidence that the shock acceleration is efficient, placing >25% of the shock kinetic energy flux into relativistic ions. Despite this high efficiency, the maximum electron and proton energies, while depending somewhat on assumptions for the compression of the magnetic field in the shock, are well below the observed `knee' at about 10^{15} eV in the Galactic cosmic-ray spectrum.