Discovery of Double-Ring Structure in the Supernova Remnant N103B: Evidence for Bipolar Winds from a Type Ia Supernova Progenitor

Abstract

The geometric structure of supernova remnants (SNR) provides a clue to unveiling the pre-explosion evolution of their progenitors. Here we present an X-ray study of N103B (0509-68.7), a Type Ia SNR in the Large Magellanic Cloud, that is known to be interacting with dense circumstellar matter (CSM). Applying our novel method for feature extraction to deep Chandra observations, we have successfully resolved the CSM, Fe-rich ejecta, and intermediate-mass element (IME) ejecta components, and revealed each of their spatial distribution. Remarkably, the IME ejecta component exhibits a double-ring structure, implying that the SNR expands into an hourglass-shape cavity and thus forms bipolar bubbles of the ejecta. This interpretation is supported by more quantitative spectroscopy that reveals a clear bimodality in the distribution of the ionization state of the IME ejecta. These observational results can be naturally explained if the progenitor binary system had formed a dense CSM torus on the orbital plane prior to the explosion, providing further evidence that the SNR N103B originates from a single-degenerate progenitor.

12 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters (originally submitted to ApJ, but offered a transfer to ApJL)

References in corpus (17)

• Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: can minimum helium shell masses detonate the core?
• Discriminating the Progenitor Type of Supernova Remnants with Iron K-Shell Emission
• Variable Sodium Absorption in a Low-Extinction Type Ia Supernova
• A Deep Chandra Observation of Kepler's Supernova Remnant: A Type Ia Event with Circumstellar Interaction
• Young and Massive Binary Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae and Their Circumstellar Matter
• Solar abundance ratios of the iron-peak elements in the Perseus Cluster
• The Stellar Ancestry of Supernovae in the Magellanic Clouds - I. the Most Recent Supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• No trace of a single-degenerate companion in late spectra of SNe 2011fe and 2014J
• Single-Degenerate Type Ia Supernovae Are Preferentially Overluminous
• The Origin of the Iron-Rich Knot in Tycho's Supernova Remnant
• Nebular Spectroscopy of Kepler's Brightest Supernova
• Spitzer Observations of the Type Ia Supernova Remnant N103B: Kepler's Older Cousin?
• A novel method for component separation of extended sources in X-ray astronomy
• Swift, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR observations of PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213
• Ionization age of iron ejecta in the Galactic Type Ia supernova remnant G306.3-0.9
• Radio Emission from Interstellar Shocks: Young Type Ia Supernova Remnants and the Case of N 103B in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Element Stratification in the Middle-Aged Type Ia Supernova Remnant G344.7-0.1

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The sculpting of rectangular and jet-like morphologies in supernova remnants by anisotropic equatorially-confined progenitor stellar winds
• Locating the CSM Emission within the Type Ia Supernova Remnant N103B
• Linking the properties of accreting white dwarfs with the ionization state of their ambient medium