X-ray Emission From Snrs Undergoing Efficient Shock Acceleration

In nonlinear, diffusive shock acceleration, compression ratios will be higher and the shocked temperature lower than test-particle, Rankine–Hugoniot relations predict. The heating of the gas to X-ray emitting temperatures is strongly coupled to the acceleration of cosmic-ray ions. We have developed a simple hydrodynamical supernova remnant model which includes the effects of nonlinear acceleration (Berezhko and Ellison, 1999). We show how efficient particle acceleration modifies the dynamics of supernova remnants, and use the X-ray spectral data on Keplers remnant to illustrate the effects on the thermal X-ray emission, including non-equilibrium ionization effects (Decourchelle et al., 2000a).