Supernova Remnants and GLAST

It has long been speculated that supernova remnants represent a major source of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. Observations over the past decade have ceremoniously unveiled direct evidence of particle acceleration in SNRs to energies approaching the knee of the cosmic ray spectrum. Nonthermal X-ray emission from shell-type SNRs reveals multi-TeV electrons, and the dynamical properties of several SNRs point to efficient acceleration of ions. Observations of TeV gamma-ray emission have confirmed the presence of energetic particles in several remnants as well, but there remains considerable debate as to whether this emission originates with high energy electrons or ions. Equally uncertain are the exact conditions that lead to efficient particle acceleration. Based on the catalog of EGRET sources, we know that there is a large population of Galactic gamma-ray sources whose distribution is similar to that of SNRs. With the increased resolution and sensitivity of GLAST, the gamma-ray SNRs from this population will be identified. Their detailed emission structure, along with their spectra, will provide the link between their environments and their spectra in other wavebands to constrain emission models and to potentially identify direct evidence of ion acceleration in SNRs. Here I summarize recent observational and theoretical work in the area of cosmic ray acceleration by SNRs, and discuss the contributions GLAST will bring to our understanding of this problem.Comment: 5 pages, to be published in "The Proceedings of the First International GLAST Symposium", February 5-8, 2007, Stanford University, AIP, Eds. S. Ritz, P. F. Michelson, and C. Meega

Fermi-LAT Observations of Supernova Remnant Kesteven 79

In this paper we report on the detection of $\gamma$-ray emission coincident with the Galactic supernova remnant Kesteven 79 (Kes 79). We analysed approximately 52 months of data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Kes 79 is thought to be interacting with adjacent molecular clouds based on the presence of strong $^{12}$CO J = 1 $\rightarrow$ 0 and HCO$^{+}$ J = 1 $\rightarrow$ 0 emission and the detection of 1720 MHz line emission towards the east of the remnant. Acceleration of cosmic rays is expected to occur at SNR shocks, and SNRs interacting with dense molecular clouds provide a good testing ground for detecting and analysing the production of $\gamma$-rays from the decay of $\pi^0$ into two $\gamma$-ray photons. This analysis investigates $\gamma$-ray emission coincident with Kes 79, which has a detection significance of $\sim 7 \sigma$. Additionally we present an investigation of the spatial and spectral characteristics of Kes 79 using multiple archival XMM-Newton observations of this remnant. We determine the global X-ray properties of Kes 79 and estimate the ambient density across the remnant. We also performed a similar analysis for Galactic SNR Kesteven 78 (Kes 78), but due to large uncertainties in the $\gamma$-ray background model, no conclusion can be made about an excess of GeV $\gamma$-ray associated with the remnant.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 16 pages, 5 figures, 6 table