Interplay between Physics and Geometry in Balmer filaments: the Case of SN 1006

The analysis of Balmer-dominated emission in supernova remnants is potentially a very powerful way to derive information on the shock structure, on the physical conditions of the ambient medium and on the cosmic-ray acceleration efficiency. However, the outcome of models developed in plane-parallel geometry is usually not easily comparable with the data, since they often come from regions with rather a complex geometry. We present here a general scheme to disentangle physical and geometrical effects in the data interpretation, which is especially powerful when the transition zone of the shock is spatially resolved and the spectral resolution is high enough to allow a detailed investigation of spatial changes of the line profile. We then apply this technique to re-analyze very high quality data of a region along the northwestern limb of the remnant of SN~1006. We show how some observed features, previously interpreted only in terms of spatial variations of physical quantities, naturally arise from geometrical effects. With these effects under control, we derive new constraints on physical quantities in the analyzed region, like the ambient density (in the range 0.03-$0.1{\,\rm cm^{-3}}$), the upstream neutral fraction (more likely in the range 0.01-0.1), the level of face-on surface brightness variations (with factors up to $\sim 3$) and the typical scale lengths related to such variations ($\ge 0.1{\,\rm pc}$, corresponding to angular scales $\ge 10{\,\rm arcsec}$).Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, 3 tables, accepted on 2018 November 21 for publication on MNRA

Radio polarization maps of shell-type supernova remnants - I. Effects of a random magnetic field component and thin-shell models

The maps of intensity and polarization of the radio synchrotron emission from shell-type supernova remnants (SNRs) contain a considerable amount of information, although of not easy interpretation. With the aim of deriving constraints on the 3D spatial distribution of the emissivity, as well as on the structure of both ordered and random magnetic fields (MFs), we present here a scheme to model maps of the emission and polarization in SNRs. We first generalize the classical treatment of the synchrotron emission to the case in which the MF is composed of an ordered MF plus an isotropic random component, with arbitrary relative strengths. For a power-law particle energy distribution, we derive analytic formulae that formally resemble those for the classical case. We also treat the shock compression of a fully random upstream field and we predict that the polarization fraction in this case should be higher than typically measured in SNRs. We implement the above treatment into a code, which simulates the observed polarized emission of an emitting shell, taking into account also the effect of the internal Faraday rotation. Finally, we show simulated maps for different orientations with respect to the observer, levels of the turbulent MF component, Faraday rotation levels, distributions of the emissivity (either barrel-shaped or limited to polar caps) and geometries for the ordered MF component (either tangential to the shell or radial). Their analysis allows us to outline properties useful for the interpretation of radio intensity and polarization maps

A Comprehensive Statistical Analysis of the Gas Distribution in Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption Systems

In this paper we show how to use data on Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems to derive the hydrogen ionization fractions and the distribution of the face-on total gas column density. We consider axially symmetric, randomly oriented absorbers, ionized by an external background radiation field in order to relate the face-on total gas distribution to that of the neutral hydrogen observed along the line of sight. We devise a statistical procedure based on the Maximum Likelihood criterion, that is able to treat simultaneously data coming from different surveys and statistically recovers the "true" column densities in the presence of large uncertainties: this is especially important for Lyman-limit systems which leave an unmeasurable residual flux at wavelengths shorter than the Lyman break. We make use of simulated data to look for possible observational biases and extensively test our procedure. For a large statistical sample of real data in the redshift range [1.75,3.25] (collected from all published surveys) our Maximum Likelihood procedure gives a power-law slope for the total hydrogen distribution of -2.7. All together Lyman-limit systems therefore contain more gas than Damped Lyman-alpha systems. Analysis of data at other redshifts shows that more observations are needed to reach a compelling evidence for a cosmological evolution of the slope of the gas distribution.Comment: 30 pages with 7 eps figures, LaTeX accepted for publication in ApJ main journa

The effects of an ionizing background on the HI column density distribution in the local Universe

Using data on the HI column density distribution in the local Universe, f(N_{HI}), we show how to determine g(N_{H}), the distribution of the total gas (HI+HII) column density. A simple power law fit to f(N_{HI}) fails due to bendings in the distributions when N_{HI}<10^{20} cm^{-2} and H is no longer fully neutral. If an ultraviolet background is responsible for the gas ionization, and g(N_{H}) is proportional N_{H}^{-alpha}, we find the values of alpha and of the intensity of the background radiation which are compatible with the present data. These best fitting values, however, depend upon the scaling law of the the gas volume densities with N_{H} and cannot be determined unambiguously. We examine in detail two models: one in which the average gas volume density decreases steadily with N_H, while in the other it stays constant at low column densities. The former model leads to a steep power law fit for g(N_{H}), with alpha of order 3.3 +- 0.4 and requires an ultraviolet flux larger than what the QSOs alone produce at z=0. For the latter alpha is 1.5 +- 0.1 and a lower ionizing flux is required. The ambiguities about the modelling and the resulting steep or shallow N_{H} distribution can be resolved only if new 21-cm observations and QSOs Lyman limit absorbers searches will provide more data in the HI-HII transition region at low redshifts. Using the best fit obtained for higher redshift data we outline two possible scenarios for the evolution of gaseous structures, compatible with the available data at z=0.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, ApJ in press (2002, vol. 567

Discovery of a Synchrotron Bubble Associated with PSR J1015-5719

We report the discovery of a synchrotron nebula, G283.1-0.59, associated with PSR J1015-5719. Radio observations using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array at 36, 16, 6, and 3 cm reveal a complex morphology. The pulsar is embedded in the “head” of the nebula with fan-shaped diffuse emission. This is connected to a circular bubble of 20″ radius and a collimated tail extending over 1′. Polarization measurements show a highly ordered magnetic field in the nebula. It wraps around the edge of the head and shows an azimuthal configuration near the pulsar, then switches direction quasi-periodically near the bubble and in the tail. Together with the flat radio spectrum observed, we suggest that this system is most plausibly a pulsar wind nebula (PWN), with the head as a bow shock that has a low Mach number and the bubble as a shell expanding in a dense environment. The bubble could act as a magnetic bottle trapping the relativistic particles. A comparison with other bow-shock PWNe with higher Mach numbers shows similar structure and B-field geometry, implying that pulsar velocity may not be the most critical factor in determining the properties of these systems. We also derive analytic expressions for the projected standoff distance and shape of an inclined bow shock. It is found that the projected distance is always larger than the true distance in three dimensions. On the other hand, the projected shape is not sensitive to the inclination after rescaling with the projected standoff distance. <P /

Sharp HI edges at high z: the gas distribution from Damped Lyman-alpha to Lyman-limit absorption systems

We derive the distribution of neutral and ionized gas in high redshift clouds which are optically thick to hydrogen ionizing radiation, using published data on Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems in the redshift range 1.75 < z < 3.25. We assume that the distribution of the hydrogen total (HI+HII) column density in the absorbers follows a power law K N_H^{-alpha}, whereas the observed HI column density distribution deviates from a pure power law as a result of ionization from a background radiation field. Comparison of the models and observations give Maximum Likelihood solutions for the exponent alpha and for X, the value of log(N_H/N_HI) when the Lyman-limit optical depth is unity: alpha=2.7^{+1.0}_{-0.7} and X=2.75\pm0.35. X is much lower than what would be obtained for a gaseous distribution in equilibrium under its own gravity but the ratio of dark matter to gas density is not well constrained being log(eta_0)=1.1\pm 0.8. An extrapolation of our derived power law distribution towards systems of lower column density, the Lyman-alpha forest, favours models with log(eta_0) < 1.1 and alpha=2.7-3.3. With alpha appreciably larger than 2, Lyman-limit systems contain more gas than Damped Lyman-alpha systems and Lyman-alpha forest clouds even more. Estimates of the cosmological gas and dark matter density due to absorbers of different column density around z=2.5 are also given.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

A (semi)-analytic view of the inner structure of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

When the wind of an active pulsar impacts on the surrounding medium, it forms a termination shock (TS) that feeds a relativistic and magnetized bubble, known as "Pulsar Wind Nebula". About thirty years ago, Kennel Coroniti investigated this scenario, but unfortunately their results failed to match the observed morphologies. That model was in principle correct, but its main drawback was the assumption of a spherical symmetry. More recently, numerical codes have been used to simulate in detail the dynamical structure of PWNe: they have shown complex morphologies, with a closer resemblance with observations. We show how Kennel Coroniti model can be generalized to two dimensions, by solving the jump equations for an oblique TS, and then the relativistic MHD equations in the downstream regions closest to the TS. In this way we can obtain two dimensional, steady state solutions, which in the inner regions agree quite well with the numerical ones. This method is semi-analytic and computationally rather light: given the shape of the TS (in an analytic form), the spatial behaviour of the physical quantities (like velocity, pressure, magnetic field) is derived. Maps of the synchrotron emission are also obtained. A final goal is to use semi-analytic modelling, together with numerical simulations, to improve inversion techniques, aimed at deriving the pulsar-wind parameters from observations