Evidence of Particle Acceleration in the Superbubble 30 Doradus C with NuSTAR

Abstract

We present evidence of diffuse, non-thermal X-ray emission from the superbubble 30 Doradus C (30 Dor C) using hard X-ray images and spectra from NuSTAR observations. For this analysis, we utilize data from a 200 ks targeted observation of 30 Dor C as well as 2.8 Ms of serendipitous off-axis observations from the monitoring of nearby SN 1987A. The complete shell of 30 Dor C is detected up to 20 keV, and the young supernova remnant MCSNR J0536−6913 in the southeast of 30 Dor C is not detected above 8 keV. Additionally, six point sources identified in previous Chandra and XMM-Newton investigations have hard X-ray emission coincident with their locations. Joint spectral fits to the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton spectra across the 30 Dor C shell confirm the non-thermal nature of the diffuse emission. Given the best-fit rolloff frequencies of the X-ray spectra, we find maximum electron energies of ≈70–110 TeV (assuming a B -field strength of 4 μ G), suggesting 30 Dor C is accelerating particles. Particles are either accelerated via diffusive shock acceleration at locations where the shocks have not stalled behind the H α shell, or cosmic-rays are accelerated through repeated acceleration of low-energy particles via turbulence and magnetohydrodynamic waves in the bubble’s interior.