Katie

The detection of non-thermal X-ray emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) provides us with a unique window into studying particle acceleration at the shock-front. All of the 14 or so SNRs in which non-thermal X-ray synchrotron emission has been detected are shell-like in nature, and show no direct evidence of interaction with large nearby molecular clouds. Here we present a new X-ray study of the molecular cloud interacting mixed-morphology (MM) SNR G346.6-0.2 using XMM-Newton. We found that the X-ray emission arises from a cool recombining plasma with sub-solar abundances, confirming previous Suzaku results. In addition, we identified an additional power-law component in the spectrum, with a photon index of $sim$2. We investigated its possible origin and conclude that it most likely arises from synchrotron emission produced by particles accelerated at the shock. This makes G346.6-0.2 an important new object in the class of synchrotron emitting SNRs, as unlike shell type X-ray synchrotron SNRs, MM SNRs are usually thought to have shock velocities that are effectively too slow to accelerate electrons. The dense environment and nature of the remnant, provide conditions unseen in shell type X-ray synchrotron SNRs, providing a unique opportunity to study the effect that these properties have on the production of X-ray synchrotron emission.