Thermal and non-thermal emission from circumstellar interaction

Roger A. Chevalier, Claes Fransson

Published 2016-12-22Version 1

It has become clear during the last decades that the interaction between the supernova ejecta and the circumstellar medium is playing a major role both for the observational properties of the supernova and for understanding the evolution of the progenitor star leading up to the explosion. In addition, it provides an opportunity to understand the shock physics connected to both thermal and non-thermal processes, including relativistic particle acceleration, radiation processes and the hydrodynamics of shock waves. This chapter has an emphasis on the information we can get from radio and X-ray observations, but also their connection to observations in the optical and ultraviolet. We first review the different physical processes involved in circumstellar interaction, including hydrodynamics, thermal X-ray emission, acceleration of relativistic particles and non-emission processes in the radio and X-ray ranges. Finally, we discuss applications of these to different types of supernovae.