paper

Elemental Abundances in the Possible Type Ia Supernova Remnant G344.7-0.1

arXiv:1202.1588 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/749/2/137

Abstract

Recent studies on the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G344.7-0.1 have commonly claimed its origin to be a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion, based on its highly asymmetric morphology and/or proximity to a star forming region. In this paper, however, we present an X-ray spectroscopic study of this SNR using Suzaku, which is supportive of a Type Ia origin. Strong K-shell emission from lowly ionized Fe has clearly been detected, and its origin is determined, for the first time, to be the Fe-rich SN ejecta. The abundance pattern is highly consistent with that expected for a somewhat-evolved Type Ia SNR. It is suggested, therefore, that the X-ray point-like source CXOU J170357.8-414302 located at the SNR's geometrical center is not associated with the SNR but is likely to be a foreground object. Our result further indicates that G344.7-0.1 is the first possible Type Ia SNR categorized as a member of the so-called "mixed-morphology" class. In addition, we have detected emission from He-like Al at ~1.6 keV, the first clear detection of this element in the spectrum of an extended X-ray source. The possible enhancement of the Al/Mg abundance ratio from the solar value suggests that the ambient interstellar medium has a relatively high metallicity (not less than 10% of the solar value), if this SNR has indeed a Type Ia origin. We also report marginal detection of Cr and Mn, although the measured fluxes have large statistical and systematic uncertainties.

ApJ in press

References in corpus (11)

Cited by in corpus (23)