Supernova remnant evolution in an interstellar medium with evaporating clouds

Abstract

A new similarity solution that describes the evolution of an SNR expanding into a cloudy interstellar medium is expounded. The solution incorporates a reasonable model of the conductive evaporation of cold clouds embedded in the hot gas behind the shock. The model has two new parameters in addition to those describing the usual Sedov solution for a uniform interstellar medium. The X-ray, infrared, and optical luminosities of remnants with evaporating clouds are calculated, and some of the expected spectral characteristics in the various wavebands are discussed. The effects described may explain the class of remnants observed to have centrally peaked X-ray emission and shell-like radio emission. The total H-alpha luminosity from evaporating clouds predicted by this model is less than that observed for SNRs with centrally peaked thermal X-ray emission. A detailed calculation of the X-ray and optical line emission from evaporating clouds would be very useful in testing this model against the observations.