Observations of dense molecular gas towards the supernova remnants CTB 37A (G348.5+0.1) and G348.5-0.0 were carried out using the Mopra and Nanten2 radio telescopes. We present CO(2-1) and CS(1-0) emission maps of a region encompassing the CTB 37A TeV gamma-ray emission, HESS J1714-385, revealing regions of dense gas within associated molecular clouds. Some gas displays good overlap with gamma-ray emission, consistent with hadronic gamma-ray emission scenarios. Masses of gas towards the HESS J1714-385 TeV gamma-ray emission region were estimated, and were of the order of 10^3-10^4 solar masses. In the case of a purely hadronic origin for the gamma-ray emission, the cosmic ray flux enhancement is ~80-1100 times the local solar value. This enhancement factor and other considerations allow a discussion of the age of CTB 37A, which is consistent with ~10^4 yr.
@article{arxiv.1307.4484,
title = {Interstellar gas towards CTB 37A and the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1714-385},
author = {Nigel I. Maxted and Gavin P. Rowell and Bruce R. Dawson and Michael G. Burton and Yasuo Fukui and Andrew Walsh and Akiko Kawamura and Hirotaka Horachi and Hidetoshi Sano and Satoshi Yoshiike and Tatsuya Fukuda},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.4484},
year = {2013}
}