Young bilateral supernova remnants evolving into a turbulent interstellar magnetic field

Abstract

ABSTRACT We employ 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study the morphology and synchrotron emission of young supernova remnants evolving in a turbulent interstellar magnetic field, seeking to shed new light on to the polarization structure of the emission and on the debate concerning the quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular acceleration mechanisms. In the simulations, we consider a non-homogeneous interstellar medium magnetic field by introducing small random perturbations in the direction and intensity of the field. In order to analyse the dependence of the radio morphology on the degree of magnetic field perturbation and the observer’s point of view, we compute synthetic maps of the polarized intensity, position-angle, polarization fraction, and the polar-reference angle. By comparing the distribution of this angle to the polarization intensity, we show that it is possible to identify what type of acceleration mechanism is taking place at the main shock front.