[Ne V] Imaging of N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We present sub-arcsecond imaging in [Ne V] of N49, the brightest optical SNR in the LMC. Between the "cool" optical and "hot" X-ray regimes, [Ne V] emission indicates intermediate temperatures for collisionally excited plasmas (2--6 x 10E5 K), for which imaging has been extremely limited. We compare the flux in these images to the O VI measured spectroscopically by FUSE in individual apertures and find dereddened line ratios that are reasonably consistent with our predictions for intermediate velocity shocks. The overall luminosity in [Ne V] for the entire remnant is 1.2E36 erg/s, which, given the measured line ratios, implies an overall O VI luminosity of 1.5E38 erg/s. These large radiative losses indicate that this material must have been shocked recently relative to the total lifetime of the remnant. We also explore the complex spatial structure. We find [Ne V] tracing the [O III] emission more closely than it does H-alpha, measure significant shifts (~0.1 pc) between the peaks of different emission lines, and find two orders of magnitude variations in the flux ratios for different filaments across the remnant. These properties as well as the general filamentary character of the optical emission suggest thermally unstable intermediate velocity shocks.

arXiv commentthe Astrophysical Journal, in press, submitted July 28, 2006, accepted September 15, 2006, 8 pages, 4 figures, 2 significantly reduced. Replaced with improved figures

References in corpus (8)

• X-Ray Emission from Multi-Phase Shock in the Large Magellanic Cloud Supernova Remnant N49
• Far Ultraviolet Spectra of a Non-Radiative Shock Wave in the Cygnus Loop
• Supernova Remnants in the Magellanic Clouds. VII. Infrared Emission from SNRs
• A Detailed Analysis of a Cygnus Loop Shock-Cloud Interaction
• Optical and Far-UV Spectroscopy of Knot D in the Vela Supernova Remnant
• Far Ultraviolet Spectral Images of the Vela Supernova Remnant
• Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of the Supernova Remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• FUSE Observations of the Cygnus Loop: OVI Emission from a Nonradiative Shock

Cited by in corpus (6)

• An X-Ray Study of Supernova Remnant N49 and Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater 0526-66 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A Spitzer Space Telescope far-infrared spectral atlas of compact sources in the Magellanic Clouds. I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• Physical Conditions in the Ionized Gas of 30 Doradus
• Forbidden Iron Lines and Dust Destruction in Supernova Remnant Shocks: The Case of N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Clouds IX: Multiwavelength Analysis of the Physical Structure of N49
• High energy gamma-ray detection of supernova remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud