Spectral softening in core-collapse supernova remnant expanding inside wind-blown bubble

Abstract

Context. Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) are widely assumed to arise from diffusive shock acceleration, specifically at shocks in supernova remnants (SNRs). These shocks expand in a complex environment, particularly in the core-collapse scenario as these SNRs evolve inside the wind-blown bubbles created by their progenitor stars. The CRs at core-collapse SNRs may carry spectral signatures of that complexity. Aims. We study particle acceleration in the core-collapse SNR of a progenitor with an initial mass of 60 M⊙ and realistic stellar evolution. The SNR shock interacts with discontinuities inside the wind-blown bubble and generates several transmitted and reflected shocks. We analyse their impact on particle spectra and the resulting emission from the remnant. Methods. To model the particle acceleration at the forward shock of a SNR expanding inside a wind bubble, we initially simulated the evolution of the pre-supernova circumstellar medium (CSM) by solving the hydrodynamic equations for the entire lifetime of the progenitor star. As the large-scale magnetic field, we considered parameterised circumstellar magnetic field with passive field transport. We then solved the hydrodynamic equations for the evolution of a SNR inside the pre-supernova CSM simultaneously with the transport equation for CRs in test-particle approximation and with the induction equation for the magnetohydrodynamics in 1D spherical symmetry. Results. The evolution of a core-collapse SNR inside a complex wind-blown bubble modifies the spectra of both the particles and their emission on account of several factors including density fluctuations, temperature variations, and the magnetic field configuration. We find softer particle spectra with spectral indices close to 2.5 during shock propagation inside the shocked wind, and this softness persists at later evolutionary stages. Further, our calculated total production spectrum released into the interstellar medium demonstrates spectral consistency at high energy (HE) with the injection spectrum of Galactic CRs, which is required in propagation models. The magnetic field structure effectively influences the emission morphology of SNRs as it governs the transportation of particles and the synchrotron emissivity. There is rarely a full correspondence of the intensity morphology in the radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray bands.