An MHD study of SN 1006 and determination of the ambient magnetic field direction

Abstract

In this work, we employ a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) numerical code to reproduce the morphology observed for SN 1006 in radio synchrotron and thermal X-ray emission. We introduce a density discontinuity, in the form of a flat cloud parallel to the Galactic plane, in order to explain the NW filament observed in optical wavelengths and in thermal X-rays. We compare our models with observations. We also perform a test that contrasts the radio emitting bright limbs of the supernova remnant against the central region, finding additional support to our results. Our main conclusion is that the most probable direction of the ambient magnetic field is on average perpendicular to the Galactic plane. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.