IIHE invited seminar: Cosmic-ray acceleration by supernova remnants: current insights and remaining puzzles

by Prof. Jacco Vink (University of Asterdam)

Friday 19 Oct 2018, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Brussels

Jean Sacton Seminar room (1G003) (IIHE (ULB-VUB))

Supernova remnant shocks have long been suspected to be the dominant source of cosmic rays. Early evidence for this idea came from the radio synchrotron radiation from supernova remnants, but this proves that electrons are accelerated up to a few GeV. However, over the last 25 years our ability to probe the cosmic-ray content of supernova remnants as well as measure the shock acceleration parameters have increased tremendously thanks to the detection of X-ray synchrotron emission from young supernova remnants and the detection of supernova remnants in gamma-rays. Nevertheless there are some important questions remaining: can supernova remnant accelerate to the knee of the cosmic-ray spectrum, and what is the shock acceleration efficiency? I will give an overview of our current understanding of cosmic-ray acceleration by supernova remnants based on X-ray and gamma-ray observations, along with some recent highlights of observations by Chandra and H.E.S.S. that I was involved in.