RGS Observations of Ejecta Knots in Tycho's Supernova Remnant

We present results from XMM-Newton/Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) observations of prominent knots in the southernmost portion of Tycho's supernova remnant, known to be the remnant of a Type Ia supernova in 1572 C.E. By dispersing the photons from these knots out of the remnant with very...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2020-08, Vol.898 (2), p.L51
Main Authors: Williams, Brian J., Katsuda, Satoru, Cumbee, Renata, Petre, Robert, Raymond, John C., Uchida, Hiroyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Doppler effect
Ejecta
Emission
Emission lines
Knots
Line broadening
Plasma astrophysics
Shocks
Space telescopes
Supernova
Supernova remnants
Supernovae
XMM (spacecraft)
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Summary:We present results from XMM-Newton/Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) observations of prominent knots in the southernmost portion of Tycho's supernova remnant, known to be the remnant of a Type Ia supernova in 1572 C.E. By dispersing the photons from these knots out of the remnant with very little emission in front of or behind them, we obtained the nearly uncontaminated spectra of the knots. In the southernmost knot, the RGS successfully resolved numerous emission lines from Si, Ne, O He and Ly , and Fe L-shell. This is the first clear detection of O lines in Tycho's supernova remnant. Line broadening was measured to be ∼3 eV for the O He and ∼4.5 eV for the Fe L lines. If we attribute the broadening to pure thermal Doppler effects, then we obtain kTO and kTFe to be ∼400 keV and 1.5 MeV, respectively. These temperatures can be explained by heating in a reverse shock with a shock velocity of ∼3500 km s−1. The abundances obtained from fitting the RGS and MOS data together imply substantially elevated amounts of these materials, confirming previous studies that the knots are heated by a reverse shock, and thus contain ejecta material from the supernova. We are unable to find a Type Ia explosion model that reproduces these abundances, but this is likely the result of this knot being too small to extrapolate to the entire remnant.
ISSN:2041-8205
2041-8213
DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/aba7c1