PROGENITORS OF RECOMBINING SUPERNOVA REMNANTS

Journal Article · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/750/1/L13· OSTI ID:22047859

Usual supernova remnants have either ionizing plasma or plasma in collisional ionization equilibrium, i.e., the ionization temperature is lower than or equal to the electron temperature. However, the existence of recombining supernova remnants, i.e., supernova remnants with ionization temperature higher than the electron temperature, has been recently confirmed. One suggested way to have recombining plasma in a supernova remnant is to have a dense circumstellar medium at the time of the supernova explosion. If the circumstellar medium is dense enough, collisional ionization equilibrium can be established in the early stage of the evolution of the supernova remnant and subsequent adiabatic cooling, which occurs after the shock wave gets out of the dense circumstellar medium, makes the electron temperature lower than the ionization temperature. We study the circumstellar medium around several supernova progenitors and show which supernova progenitors can have a circumstellar medium dense enough to establish collisional ionization equilibrium soon after the explosion. We find that the circumstellar medium around red supergiants (especially massive ones) and the circumstellar medium dense enough to make Type IIn supernovae can establish collisional ionization equilibrium soon after the explosion and can evolve to become recombining supernova remnants. Wolf-Rayet stars and white dwarfs have the possibility to be recombining supernova remnants but the fraction is expected to be very small. As the occurrence rate of the explosions of red supergiants is much higher than that of Type IIn supernovae, the major progenitors of recombining supernova remnants are likely to be red supergiants.

• OSTI ID: 22047859
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 750; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
EQUILIBRIUM
IONIZATION
PLASMA
RED GIANT STARS
SHOCK WAVES
STAR EVOLUTION
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
SUPERNOVAE
WHITE DWARF STARS
WOLF-RAYET STARS