Investigating the nature of magnetic turbulence in Tycho’s SNR using X-ray observation

Abstract Supernova remnants (SNRs) are widely regarded as the primary sources of Galactic cosmic ray acceleration and the particles are energized at the shock front of SNRs through the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) mechanism, gaining energy by repeatedly crossing the shock. Magnetic turbulence plays a crucial role in scattering these particles back and forth, making the investigation of turbulence essential to understanding the acceleration process. In this study, we apply the two-point correlation method to derive the magnetic energy spectrum from the non-thermal X-ray flux image of Tycho’s SNR. This image was obtained using Poissonian-based Generalized Morphological Component Analysis (pGMCA). The turbulence length scale observed in the resulting spectrum is shorter than the turbulence scale derived from previous studies of radio observations of Tycho’s SNR. Additionally, we use the X-ray rim thickness measured across Tycho which is an indicator of magnetic field strength to estimate the magnetic energy spectrum. The turbulence scale inferred from this method is consistent with that obtained from the non-thermal X-ray flux analysis.