Hadronic Interpretation of High-Energy Gamma-Rays from Two TeV Sources Coincident with Molecular Clouds Overtaken by Supernova Remnants

We present a possible hadronic explanation of the high-energy γ-ray emission from two very high-energy (VHE) sources, HESS J1745--303 (A) and HESS J1714-385, which coincide with supernova remnants (SNRs) interacting with dense molecular clouds (MCs). We calculate the proton spectra and the corresponding hadronic γ-ray spectra for different Mach numbers of the shock wave in a semi-analytical model for the non-linear shock acceleration process, then apply the model to the two newly discovered TeV sources. The results show that the γ-ray spectra for the two sources with energies above 100MeV detected by HESS and EGRET can be reproduced with low Mach numbers about 2.5. Thus the high-energy γ-ray origin for each one of the two sources can be interpreted as proton--proton (p-p) collisions in MCs overtaken by an SNR shock wave..