TeV gamma-ray Observations of the Supernova Remnant RCW86 with the CANGAROO-II telescope

Abstract

The supernova remnant(SNR) RCW86(G315.4-2.3) has been observed as our third SNR in 2001 and 2002 with the CANGAROO-II 10m telescope from Woomera, South Australia, to further test the hypothesis that SNR accelerate cosmic rays. RCW86 is a type II and shell-like supernova remnant, and ASCA detected non-thermal X-ray emission from the southwest shell of RCW86, which is brighter than that from SN1006. The multiwavelength spectrum of RCW86 derived from radio and X-ray data indicates that the emission is due to the synchrotron radiation, and it is argued that high energy electrons emitting the detected synchrotron radiation are expected to be accelerated up to 20TeV. Therefore, the radiation due to inverse Compton scattering with photons of the 2.7K cosmic microwave background is also expected to be detectable with the CANGAROO-II telescope if the magnetic field is as weak as that of SN1006. Here we report the preliminary results.