$^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 Observations of Tycho's supernova remnant: constraints on the environmental gas properties

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bo, Sendi, Huang, Yu, Zhou, Ping, Tu, Tian-Yu, Safi-Harb, Samar, Zhang, Zhi-Yu, Chen, Yang, Sano, Hidetoshi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bo, Sendi
Huang, Yu
Zhou, Ping
Tu, Tian-Yu
Safi-Harb, Samar
Zhang, Zhi-Yu
Chen, Yang
Sano, Hidetoshi
author_facet Bo, Sendi
Huang, Yu
Zhou, Ping
Tu, Tian-Yu
Safi-Harb, Samar
Zhang, Zhi-Yu
Chen, Yang
Sano, Hidetoshi
contents Recent observations suggest that Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR; SN 1572) is expanding into a cavity wall of molecular clouds (MCs), which decelerate the SNR and influence its multi-wavelength morphology. To constrain the physical properties of environmental MCs and search for heated gas, we perform a JCMT $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 observation and compare with previous $^{12}$CO $J$=2--1, $^{12}$CO $J$=1--0 and $^{13}$CO $J$=1--0 data. We present the $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 map toward Tycho and show that the $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 spatial distribution and line profiles are similar to those of the lower-$J$ CO lines. By comparing the multiple transitions of CO and the RADEX (Radiative transfer code in non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) models, we constrain the physical properties of molecular gas surrounding Tycho: the northern cloud has a molecular column density of $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.5$ -- $4.5\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, while other regions have $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.2$ -- $3.9\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$; the kinetic temperatures $T_{\rm k}$ of these clouds are in the range of 9 -- 22 K and the volume densities $n({\rm H}_{2})$ are 20 -- $700$ cm$^{-3}$. We also discuss the difficulty in finding hot molecular gas shocked by such a young SNR. We estimate that the shocked molecular layer can be as thin as 0.003 pc, corresponding to $0.2''$ at the distance of 2.5 kpc, which is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the angular resolution of current CO observations. Therefore, our molecular observations are largely insensitive to the thin shocked gas layer; instead, they detect the environmental gas.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_10245
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 Observations of Tycho's supernova remnant: constraints on the environmental gas properties
Bo, Sendi
Huang, Yu
Zhou, Ping
Tu, Tian-Yu
Safi-Harb, Samar
Zhang, Zhi-Yu
Chen, Yang
Sano, Hidetoshi
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Recent observations suggest that Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR; SN 1572) is expanding into a cavity wall of molecular clouds (MCs), which decelerate the SNR and influence its multi-wavelength morphology. To constrain the physical properties of environmental MCs and search for heated gas, we perform a JCMT $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 observation and compare with previous $^{12}$CO $J$=2--1, $^{12}$CO $J$=1--0 and $^{13}$CO $J$=1--0 data. We present the $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 map toward Tycho and show that the $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 spatial distribution and line profiles are similar to those of the lower-$J$ CO lines. By comparing the multiple transitions of CO and the RADEX (Radiative transfer code in non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) models, we constrain the physical properties of molecular gas surrounding Tycho: the northern cloud has a molecular column density of $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.5$ -- $4.5\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, while other regions have $N({\rm H}_{2})=0.2$ -- $3.9\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$; the kinetic temperatures $T_{\rm k}$ of these clouds are in the range of 9 -- 22 K and the volume densities $n({\rm H}_{2})$ are 20 -- $700$ cm$^{-3}$. We also discuss the difficulty in finding hot molecular gas shocked by such a young SNR. We estimate that the shocked molecular layer can be as thin as 0.003 pc, corresponding to $0.2''$ at the distance of 2.5 kpc, which is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the angular resolution of current CO observations. Therefore, our molecular observations are largely insensitive to the thin shocked gas layer; instead, they detect the environmental gas.
title $^{12}$CO $J$=3--2 Observations of Tycho's supernova remnant: constraints on the environmental gas properties
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10245