English

$^{44}\rm Ti$ ejecta in young supernova remnants

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2020-06-24 v1

Abstract

Context: Tracing unstable isotopes produced in supernova nucleosynthesis provides a direct diagnostic of supernova explosion physics. Theoretical models predict an extensive variety of scenarios, which can be constrained through observations of the abundant isotopes 56^{56}Ni and 44^{44}Ti. Direct evidence of the latter was previously found only in two core-collapse supernova events, and appears to be absent in thermonuclear supernovae.Aims: We aim to to constrain the supernova progenitor types of Cas A, SN 1987A, Vela Jr., G1.9+0.3, SN1572, and SN1604 through their 44^{44}Ti ejecta masses and explosion kinematics. Methods: We analyzed INTEGRAL/SPI observations of the candidate sources utilizing an empirically motivated high-precision background model. We analyzed the three dominant spectroscopically resolved de-excitation lines at 68, 78, and 1157\,keV emitted in the decay chain of 44^{44}Ti. The fluxes allow the determination of the production yields of 44^{44}Ti. Remnant kinematics were obtained from the Doppler characteristics of the lines. Results: We find a significant signal for Cas A in all three lines with a combined significance of 5.4σ\sigma. The fluxes are (3.3±0.9)×105(3.3 \pm 0.9) \times 10^{-5} ph cm2^{-2} s1^{-1}, and (4.2±1.0)×105(4.2 \pm 1.0) \times 10^{-5} ph cm2^{-2} s1^{-1} for the 44^{44}Ti and 44^{44}Sc decay, respectively. We obtain higher fluxes for 44^{44}Ti with our analysis of Cas A than were obtained in previous analyses. We discuss potential differences. Conclusions: We obtain a high 44^{44}Ti ejecta mass for Cas A that is in disagreement with ejecta yields from symmetric 2D models. Upper limits for the other core-collapse supernovae are in agreement with model predictions and previous studies. The upper limits we find for the three thermonuclear supernovae consistently exclude the double detonation and pure helium deflagration models as progenitors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.12688,
  title  = {$^{44}\rm Ti$ ejecta in young supernova remnants},
  author = {Christoph Weinberger and Roland Diehl and Moritz M. M. Pleintinger and Thomas Siegert and Jochen Greiner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.12688},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

15 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

R2 v1 2026-06-23T15:07:05.852Z