Spitzer Observations of the Type Ia Supernova Remnant N103B: Kepler's Older Cousin?

Abstract

We report results from Spitzer observations of SNR 0509-68.7, also known as N103B, a young Type Ia supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud that shows interaction with a dense medium in its western hemisphere. Our images show that N103B has strong IR emission from warm dust in the post-shock environment. The post-shock gas density we derive, 45 cm${}^{-3}$, is much higher than in other Type Ia remnants in the LMC, though a lack of spatial resolution may bias measurements towards regions of higher than average density. This density is similar to that in Kepler's SNR, a Type Ia interacting with a circumstellar medium. Optical images show H$\alpha$ emission along the entire periphery of the western portion of the shock, with [O III] and [S II] lines emitted from a few dense clumps of material where the shock has become radiative. The dust is silicate in nature, though standard silicate dust models fail to reproduce the "18 $\mu$m" silicate feature that peaks instead at 17.3 $\mu$m. We propose that the dense material is circumstellar material lost from the progenitor system, as with Kepler. If the CSM interpretation is correct, this remnant would become the second member, along with Kepler, of a class of Type Ia remnants characterized by interaction with a dense CSM hundreds of years post-explosion. A lack of N enhancement eliminates symbiotic AGB progenitors. The white dwarf companion must have been relatively unevolved at the time of the explosion.

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 35 pages, 9 figures, manuscript style

References in corpus (8)

• Spectral Mapping Reconstruction of Extended Sources
• A Deep Chandra Observation of Kepler's Supernova Remnant: A Type Ia Event with Circumstellar Interaction
• Dust Destruction in Fast Shocks of Core-Collapse Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Stellar Ancestry of Supernovae in the Magellanic Clouds - I. the Most Recent Supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Dust Destruction in Type Ia Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A single-degenerate model for the progenitor of the Type Ia supernova 2002ic
• The Persistence of Memory, or How the X-Ray Spectrum of SNR 0509-67.5 Reveals the Brightness of its Parent Type Ia Supernova
• Evidence for short-lived SN Ia progenitors

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Modeling SNR G1.9+0.3 as a Supernova Inside a Planetary Nebula
• Physical Structures of the Type Ia Supernova Remnant N103B
• Excluding super-soft X-ray sources as progenitors for four Type Ia supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of Double-Ring Structure in the Supernova Remnant N103B: Evidence for Bipolar Winds from a Type Ia Supernova Progenitor
• Investigation of the Progenitors of the Type Ia Supernovae Associated With the LMC Supernova Remnants 0505-67.9 and 0509-68.7
• Forbidden Line Emission from Type Ia Supernova Remnants Containing Balmer-Dominated Shells
• Common envelope to explosion delay time distribution (CEEDTD) of type Ia supernovae
• Radio Emission from Interstellar Shocks: Young Type Ia Supernova Remnants and the Case of N 103B in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Evidence for a Dense, Inhomogeneous Circumstellar Medium in the Type Ia SNR 0519-69.0
• Do Type Ia Supernovae Explode Inside Planetary Nebulae?
• Locating the CSM Emission within the Type Ia Supernova Remnant N103B
• Supersoft X-Ray Nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Linking the properties of accreting white dwarfs with the ionization state of their ambient medium