Particle propagation in clumpy supernova remnants

Abstract

The presence of dense clumps in the environment where a supernova remnant expands might have a strong impact in shaping the observed hadronic gamma-ray spectrum. A detailed numerical study about the penetration of relativistic protons into clumps which are engulfed by a supernova remnant shock is here presented, taking into account the magneto-hydrodynamical properties of the background plasma. This has strong implications for the formation of the spectrum of hadronic gamma rays, which does not reflect anymore the acceleration spectrum of protons, resulting substantially modified by propagation effects. A hadronic scenario including dense clumps inside the remnant shell is shown to adequately reproduce the broadband gamma-ray spectrum of the Galactic supernova remnant RX J1713-3946.7 from GeV to TeV energies.