Letter to the Editor

Confirmation of strong magnetic field amplification and nuclear cosmic ray acceleration in SN 1006

¹ Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy, 31 Lenin Ave., 677891 Yakutsk, Russia
² Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8582, Japan
³ Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 103980, 69029 Heidelberg, Germany

Corresponding author: H. J. Völk, Heinrich.Voelk@mpi-hd.mpg.de

Received: 4 September 2003
Accepted: 29 October 2003

Abstract

It is shown that the nonlinear kinetic model of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova remnants (SNRs) fits the shell-type nonthermal X-ray morphology, obtained in Chandra observations, in a satisfactory way. The set of empirical parameters is the same which reproduces the dynamical properties of the SNR and the spectral characteristics of the emission produced by CRs. The extremely small spatial scales of the observed X-ray distribution are due to the large effective magnetic field  μG in the interior, which is also required to give a good fit for the spatially integrated radio and X-ray synchrotron spectra. The only reasonably thinkable condition for the production of such a large effective field strength is an efficiently accelerated nuclear CR component. Therefore the Chandra data confirm the inference that SN 1006 indeed accelerates nuclear CRs with the high efficiency required for SNRs to be considered as the main Galactic CR sources.