Progenitors and explosion properties of supernova remnants hosting central compact objects: I. RCW 103 associated with the peculiar source 1E 161348−5055

Abstract

We present a Chandra and XMM-Newton imaging and spectroscopic study of the supernova remnant (SNR) RCW 103 (G332.4-00.4) containing the Central Compact Object 1E 161348-5055. The high resolution Chandra X-ray images reveal enhanced emission in the south-eastern and north-western regions. Equivalent width line images of Fe L, Mg, Si, and S using XMM-Newton data were used to map the distribution of ejecta. The SNR was sectioned into 56 regions best characterized by two-component thermal models. The harder component (kT ∼ 0.6 keV) is adequately fitted by the VPSHOCK non-equilibrium ionization model with an ionization timescale n e t ∼ 10 11 -10 12 cm −3 s, and slightly enhanced abundances over solar values. The soft component (kT ∼ 0.2 keV), fitted by the APEC model, is well described by plasma in collisional ionization equilibrium with abundances consistent with solar values. Assuming a distance of 3.1 kpc and a Sedov phase of expansion into a uniform medium, we estimate an SNR age of 4.4 kyr, a swept-up mass M sw = 16 f −1/2 s D 5/2 3.1 M , and a low explosion energy E * = 3.7 × 10 49 f −1/2 s D 5/2 3.1 erg. This energy could be an order of magnitude higher if we relax the Sedov assumption, the plasma has a low filling factor, the plasma temperature is under-estimated, or if the SNR is expanding into the progenitor's wind-blown bubble. Standard explosion models did not match the ejecta yields. By comparing the fitted abundances to the most recent core-collapse nucleosynthesis models, our best estimate yields a low-mass progenitor around 12-13 M , lower than previously reported. We discuss degeneracies in the model fitting, particularly the effect of altering the explosion energy on the progenitor mass estimate.wave that propagate through the ISM, creating a shell-like structure that emits radiation detectable in the X-ray band. The nucleosynthesis products of supernovae have prominent emission lines in the 0.3-10 keV range, which are referred to as the oxygen-group and intermediate mass elements (O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca) and the iron-group elements (mostly Fe and Ni). Furthermore, the X-ray emission lines provide information about the temperature and ionization state of the hot plasma which can be used to infer the supernova explosion properties.RCW 103 is a young, Galactic shell-type SNR with a hard X-ray point source close to its centre, labelled 1E 161348-5055 (hereafter 1E1613) (Tuohy & Garmire

Numerically investigating the peculiar periphery of a supernova remnant in the medium with a density gradient: the case of RCW 103

“…The age is estimated to be ∼ 2000 yr through the average optical expansion rate of the outer edge about 1100 km/s (Carter & Dickel et al 1997). There is a strong X-ray emission region in the southeast of the remnant in the morphologies obtained with Chandra and XMM-Newton (Caswell et al 1980;Dickel et al 1996;Rho et al 2001;Pinheiro Gonalves et al 2011;Braun et al 2019). We note that the remnant has a central low-density area from southwest to northeast ('bar').…”

Periodicity in recurrent fast radio bursts and the origin of ultralong period magnetars

“…The late-time accretion of supernova ejecta through a fallback disk 11 (Michel 1988) and its resulting torque on the central neutron star has long been considered a promising mechanism to explain the ULP of 1E 161348-5055 (Li 2007;Tong et al 2016;Ho & Andersson 2017;Xu & Li 2019), although most previous works on this subject make a number of overly simplistic assumptions. Spectroscopic calorimetry of RCW 103 with blast-wave models provide evidence for a subenergetic supernova explosion (Braun et al 2019;Zhou et al 2019), consistent with a significant quantity of fallback material. Metzger et al (2018) presented a model for fallback accretion onto millisecond magnetars, assuming that the magnetic field is aligned with the spin vector and taking into account the angular momentum and energy coupling between the disk and the magnetar, and focusing on the situation in which the fallback radius and the outer edge of the disk, are larger than the other characteristic radii in the problem.…”

Revisiting the distance, environment and supernova properties of SNR G57.2+0.8 that hosts SGR 1935+2154

“…The explosion energies of magnetars in SNRs have been found to vary by over one order of magnitude (Vink & Kuiper 2006;Zhou et al 2019). Particularly, SNR RCW 103 hosting the magnetar 1E 161348−5055 originated from a very low energy explosion (∼ 10 50 erg, Zhou et al 2019;Braun et al 2019). Therefore, we cannot simply assume a canonical explosion energy E = 10 51 erg for G57.2+0.8 and SGR 1935+2154.…”