Main goal of the thesis
The main goal of the project is to use the unique capability of high-spatial resolution integral-field spectrographs to accurately trace and isolate shock fronts, allowing a careful analysis of shocks and their ambient medium. With the development of new shock models that include a cosmic ray (CR) precursor, and newly obtained and requested spectroscopic imaging data, we hope to quantify the presence of hadronic CRs and their properties.
We focus on optical "Balmer-dominated shocks", traditionally observed as limb brightened optical laments around historical supernova remnants. They are characterized by strong hydrogen emission lines with a narrow ( 10 km/s) and broad ( 1000 km/s) component. For the first time, we derived two-dimensional maps of the shock properties. Performing double-Gaussian fits and measuring the broad-line width and broad-to-narrow line intensity, we can constrain the shock velocity and electron-to-proton temperature immediately behind the shock front. Next, combining these measurements with the sometimes coincident non-thermal (X-ray and radio) emission observed, provides a rare opportunity to study CR acceleration in partially-neutral media.