RCW 86: The Remnant of a Type Ia Explosion in a Wind-blown Bubble

Details RCW 86: The Remnant of a Type Ia Explosion in a Wind-blown Bubble RCW 86: The Remnant of a Type Ia Explosion in a Wind-blown Bubble

Sep 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.3301w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #33.01

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The identification of the progenitor systems of type Ia supernovae is an ongoing effort, with implications for many astronomical fields. In the single-degenerate scenario, the accreting system may leave some imprint on the surrounding medium, which should affect the dynamics of the expanding remnant. We present X-ray and infrared observations of RCW 86, the likely remnant of the supernova of 185 A.D., which for several decades has presented a dynamical puzzle. Its size (D = 25 pc) implies an explosion into a cavity, yet optically determined shock speeds are slower than the average expansion speed by an order of magnitude. We use Spitzer observations of the northwest and southwest rims to determine the postshock density in these regions to be 2 cm-3, and X-ray spectra to determine the ionization state of the gas and relative abundances of ejecta products. Oxygen lines in X-ray spectra are consistent with solar abundances from shocked ISM, while iron K-shell lines imply significant amounts of reverse-shocked iron. Combined with the existence of Balmer-dominated shocks around the entire periphery and the lack of a compact remnant, this strongly implies a type Ia origin. If the age of the remnant is 1825 years, hydrodynamic simulations require an explosion into a low-density (n0 = 0.002 cm-3) bubble, surrounded by higher density ambient medium (n0 = 0.5 cm-3). This model reproduces the observed ionization state of the gas, as well as the radius and velocity of the forward shock. This makes RCW 86 the first case of a type Ia SN exploding into a cavity carved by the progenitor system. The high shock speeds in the eastern limb imply an off-center explosion. Gamma-rays have been detected from this remnant, and we find that the spectrum below 1 TeV must harden to Gamma < 2.

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