G11.2−0.3: THE YOUNG REMNANT OF A STRIPPED-ENVELOPE SUPERNOVA

Journal Article · Thu Mar 10 04:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/160· OSTI ID:22521421

Borkowski, Kazimierz J.; Reynolds, Stephen P. ^[1]; Roberts, Mallory S. E., ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8202 (United States)
2. New York University Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

We present results of a 400 ks Chandra observation of the young shell supernova remnant (SNR) G11.2−0.3, containing a pulsar and pulsar-wind nebula (PWN). We measure a mean expansion rate for the shell since 2000 of 0.0277 ± 0.0018% yr{sup −1}, implying an age between 1400 and 2400 yr, and making G11.2−0.3 one of the youngest core-collapse SNRs in the Galaxy. However, we find very high absorption (A{sub V} ∼ 16{sup m} ± 2{sup m}), confirming near-IR determinations and ruling out a claimed association with the possible historical SN of 386 CE. The PWN shows strong jets and a faint torus within a larger, more diffuse region of radio emission and nonthermal X-rays. Central soft thermal X-ray emission is anticorrelated with the PWN; that, and more detailed morphological evidence, indicates that the reverse shock has already reheated all ejecta and compressed the PWN. The pulsar characteristic energy-loss timescale is well in excess of the remnant age, and we suggest that the bright jets have been produced since the recompression. The relatively pronounced shell and diffuse hard X-ray emission in the interior, enhanced at the inner edge of the shell, indicate that the immediate circumstellar medium into which G11.2−0.3 is expanding was quite anisotropic. We propose a possible origin for G11.2−0.3 in a stripped-envelope progenitor that had lost almost all its envelope mass, in an anisotropic wind or due to binary interaction, leaving a compact core whose fast winds swept previously lost mass into a dense irregular shell, and which exploded as a SN cIIb or Ibc.

• OSTI ID: 22521421
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 819; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
BINARY STARS
ENERGY LOSSES
GALAXIES
GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE
HARD X RADIATION
JETS
MASS
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
NEBULAE
PULSARS
STELLAR WINDS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS