Magnetic Structures and Turbulence in SN 1006 Revealed with Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry
Ping Zhou, Dmitry Prokhorov, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Yi-Jung Yang, Patrick Slane, Jacco Vink, Stefano Silvestri, N. Bucciantini, E. M. Reynoso, D. A. Moffett, P. Soffitta, Doug Swartz, P. Kaaret, L. Baldini, E. Costa, C.‐Y. Ng, Dawoon E. Kim, Victor Doroshenko, Steven R. Ehlert, Jeremy Heyl, Frédéric Marin, Tsunefumi Mizuno, M. Pesce-Rollins, C. Sgró, Toru Tamagawa, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, I. Agudo, L. A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, W. H. Baumgartner, R. Bellazzini, S. Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, R. Bonino, A. Brez, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, E. Cavazzuti, Chien‐Ting Chen, S. Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, E. Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Alessandro Di Marco, I. Donnarumma, Michal Dovčiak, Teruaki Enoto, Y. Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, W. Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Fabian Kislat, V. Karas, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, H. Krawczynski, Fabio La Monaca, L. Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, S. Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, G. Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Fabio Muleri, Michela Negro, Stephen L. O’Dell, N. Omodei, C. Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, M. Perri, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, M. Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, O. J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, G. Spandre, F. Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, A. Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla
Abstract
Abstract Young supernova remnants strongly modify the surrounding magnetic fields, which in turn play an essential role in accelerating cosmic rays (CRs). The X-ray polarization measurements probe magnetic field morphology and turbulence at the immediate acceleration site. We report the X-ray polarization distribution in the northeastern shell of SN 1006 from a 1 Ms observation with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. We found an average polarization degree of 22.4% ± 3.5% and an average polarization angle of −45.°4 ± 4.°5 (measured on the plane of the sky from north to east). The X-ray polarization angle distribution reveals that the magnetic fields immediately behind the shock in the northeastern shell of SN 1006 are nearly parallel to the shock normal or radially distributed, similar to that in the radio observations, and consistent with the quasi-parallel CR acceleration scenario. The X-ray emission is marginally more polarized than that in the radio band. The X-ray polarization degree of SN 1006 is much larger than that in Cas A and Tycho, together with the relatively tenuous and smooth ambient medium of the remnant, favoring that CR-induced instabilities set the magnetic turbulence in SN 1006, and CR acceleration is environment-dependent.