Chandra Large Project Observations of the Supernova Remnant N132D: Measuring the Expansion of the Forward Shock

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Main Authors: Long, Xi, Plucinsky, Paul P., Gaetz, Terrance J., Kashyap, Vinay L., Bamba, Aya, Blair, William P., Castro, Daniel, Foster, Adam R., Law, Charles J., Milisavljevic, Dan, Miller, Eric, Patnaude, Daniel J., Sasaki, Manami, Sano, Hidetoshi, Sharda, Piyush, Williams, Benjamin F., Williams, Brian J., Yamaguchi, Hiroya
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Published: 2025
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author Long, Xi
Plucinsky, Paul P.
Gaetz, Terrance J.
Kashyap, Vinay L.
Bamba, Aya
Blair, William P.
Castro, Daniel
Foster, Adam R.
Law, Charles J.
Milisavljevic, Dan
Miller, Eric
Patnaude, Daniel J.
Sasaki, Manami
Sano, Hidetoshi
Sharda, Piyush
Williams, Benjamin F.
Williams, Brian J.
Yamaguchi, Hiroya
author_facet Long, Xi
Plucinsky, Paul P.
Gaetz, Terrance J.
Kashyap, Vinay L.
Bamba, Aya
Blair, William P.
Castro, Daniel
Foster, Adam R.
Law, Charles J.
Milisavljevic, Dan
Miller, Eric
Patnaude, Daniel J.
Sasaki, Manami
Sano, Hidetoshi
Sharda, Piyush
Williams, Benjamin F.
Williams, Brian J.
Yamaguchi, Hiroya
contents We present results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory Large Project (878 ks in 28 observations) of the Large Magellanic Cloud supernova remnant N132D. We measure the expansion of the forward shock in the bright southern rim to be $0.\!^{\prime\prime}10 \pm 0.\!^{\prime\prime}02$ over the $\sim14.5$ yr baseline, which corresponds to a velocity of $1620\pm400~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$ after accounting for several instrumental effects. We measure an expansion of $0.\!^{\prime\prime}23 \pm 0.\!^{\prime\prime}02$ and a shock velocity of $3840\pm260~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$ for two features in an apparent blowout region in the northeast. The emission-measure-weighted average temperature inferred from X-ray spectral fits to regions in the southern rim is $0.95\pm0.17$ keV, consistent with the electron temperature implied by the shock velocity after accounting for Coulomb equilibration and adiabatic expansion. In contrast, the emission-measure-weighted average temperature for the northeast region is $0.77\pm0.04$ keV, which is significantly lower than the value inferred from the shock velocity. We fit 1-D evolutionary models for the shock in the southern rim and northeast region, using the measured radius and propagation velocity into a constant density and power-law profile circumstellar medium. We find good agreement with the age of $\sim2500$ years derived from optical expansion measurements for explosion energies of $1.5-3.0 \times 10^{51}\,\mathrm{erg}$, ejecta masses of $2-6 \,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and ambient medium densities of $\sim0.33-0.66$ $\mathrm{amu~cm}^{-3}$ in the south and $\sim0.01-0.02$ $\mathrm{amu~cm}^{-3}$ in the northeast assuming a constant density medium. These results are consistent with previous studies that suggested the progenitor of N132D was an energetic supernova that exploded into a pre-existing cavity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_12157
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Chandra Large Project Observations of the Supernova Remnant N132D: Measuring the Expansion of the Forward Shock
Long, Xi
Plucinsky, Paul P.
Gaetz, Terrance J.
Kashyap, Vinay L.
Bamba, Aya
Blair, William P.
Castro, Daniel
Foster, Adam R.
Law, Charles J.
Milisavljevic, Dan
Miller, Eric
Patnaude, Daniel J.
Sasaki, Manami
Sano, Hidetoshi
Sharda, Piyush
Williams, Benjamin F.
Williams, Brian J.
Yamaguchi, Hiroya
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We present results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory Large Project (878 ks in 28 observations) of the Large Magellanic Cloud supernova remnant N132D. We measure the expansion of the forward shock in the bright southern rim to be $0.\!^{\prime\prime}10 \pm 0.\!^{\prime\prime}02$ over the $\sim14.5$ yr baseline, which corresponds to a velocity of $1620\pm400~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$ after accounting for several instrumental effects. We measure an expansion of $0.\!^{\prime\prime}23 \pm 0.\!^{\prime\prime}02$ and a shock velocity of $3840\pm260~\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}}$ for two features in an apparent blowout region in the northeast. The emission-measure-weighted average temperature inferred from X-ray spectral fits to regions in the southern rim is $0.95\pm0.17$ keV, consistent with the electron temperature implied by the shock velocity after accounting for Coulomb equilibration and adiabatic expansion. In contrast, the emission-measure-weighted average temperature for the northeast region is $0.77\pm0.04$ keV, which is significantly lower than the value inferred from the shock velocity. We fit 1-D evolutionary models for the shock in the southern rim and northeast region, using the measured radius and propagation velocity into a constant density and power-law profile circumstellar medium. We find good agreement with the age of $\sim2500$ years derived from optical expansion measurements for explosion energies of $1.5-3.0 \times 10^{51}\,\mathrm{erg}$, ejecta masses of $2-6 \,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ and ambient medium densities of $\sim0.33-0.66$ $\mathrm{amu~cm}^{-3}$ in the south and $\sim0.01-0.02$ $\mathrm{amu~cm}^{-3}$ in the northeast assuming a constant density medium. These results are consistent with previous studies that suggested the progenitor of N132D was an energetic supernova that exploded into a pre-existing cavity.
title Chandra Large Project Observations of the Supernova Remnant N132D: Measuring the Expansion of the Forward Shock
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12157