Cosmic-ray-induced ionization in molecular clouds adjacent to supernova remnants - Tracing the hadronic origin of GeV gamma radiation

Energetic gamma rays (GeV to TeV photon energy) have been detected toward several supernova remnants (SNR) associated with molecular clouds. If the gamma rays are produced mainly by hadronic processes rather than leptonic processes like bremsstrahlung, then the flux of energetic cosmic ray (CR) nuclei (>1 GeV) required to produce the gamma rays can be inferred at the site where the particles are accelerated in SNR shocks. It is of great interest to understand the acceleration of the CR of lower energy (<1 GeV) accompanying the energetic component. These particles of lower energy are most effective in ionizing interstellar gas, leaving an observable imprint on the interstellar ion chemistry. A correlation of energetic gamma radiation with enhanced interstellar ionization can thus support the hadronic origin of the gamma rays and constrain the acceleration of ionizing CR in SNR. We propose a method to test the hadronic origin of GeV gamma rays from SNR associated with a molecular cloud. We use observational gamma ray data for each of these SNR known, modeling the observations to obtain the underlying proton spectrum assuming that the gamma rays are produced by pion decay. Assuming that the acceleration mechanism does not only produce high energy protons, but also low energy protons, this proton spectrum at the source is then used to calculate the ionization rate of the molecular cloud. Ionized molecular hydrogen triggers a chemical network forming molecular ions. The relaxation of these ions results in characteristic line emission, which can be predicted. We show that the ionization rate for at least two objects is more than an order of magnitude above Galactic average for molecular clouds, hinting at an enhanced formation rate of molecular ions. There will be interesting opportunities to measure crucial molecular ions in the infrared and submillimeter-wave parts of the spectrum.