THE GALACTIC SUPERNOVA REMNANT W49B LIKELY ORIGINATES FROM A JET-DRIVEN, CORE-COLLAPSE EXPLOSION

We present results from a 220 ks observation of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) W49B using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chanrda X-ray Observatory. We exploit these data to perform detailed spatially resolved spectroscopic analyses across the SNR with the aim to investigate...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lopez, Laura A., Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico, Castro, Daniel, Pearson, Sarah
Other Authors: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Institute of Physics/American Astronomical Society 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/94512
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3243-727X
Description
Summary:We present results from a 220 ks observation of the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) W49B using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chanrda X-ray Observatory. We exploit these data to perform detailed spatially resolved spectroscopic analyses across the SNR with the aim to investigate the thermodynamic properties and explosive origin of W49B. We find substantial variation in the electron temperature and absorbing column toward W49B, and we show that the mean metal abundances are consistent with the predicted yields in models of bipolar/jet-driven core-collapse SNe. Furthermore, we set strict upper limits on the X-ray luminosity of any undetected point sources, and we exclude the presence of a neutron star associated with W49B. We conclude that the morphological, spectral, and environmental characteristics of W49B are indicative of a bipolar Type Ib/Ic SN origin, making it the first of its kind to be discovered in the Milky Way.