Gamma radiation from cosmic rays escaping a young supernova remnant: The case of Cas A

Abstract

The escape of accelerated particles from supernova remnants remains one of the central and yet least understood aspects of the origin of cosmic rays. Here we use the results of the recent LHAASO observation of gamma rays from a region of ∼2 degrees around the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant to constrain the process of particle escape from this remnant. We dedicate special attention to discuss the impact of shock evolution and particle propagation in the near source region on the gamma ray emission. This is very important to assess the possibility that very high-energy protons may have been accelerated in past activity of Cas A. Given the core collapse nature of Cas A and its young age (∼340 years), the non detection of ≳100 TeV gamma rays from this remnant allows us to draw some conclusions on the role of supernova explosions for the origin of cosmic rays at the knee. In particular we calculate the spectrum of cosmic rays that may have escaped this remnant to make a clear distinction between the instantaneous maximum energy and the one that appears as a flux suppression in the time integrated spectrum from an individual supernova. LHAASO observation of the region around Cas A as well as gamma ray observations of the remnant itself confirm that this remnant is not operating as a PeVatron and that, although in the early stages the maximum energy may have reached ∼Peta-electronVolt, the number of such particles in the surroundings of Cas A is exceedingly small.