English

High angular resolution ALMA images of dust and molecules in the SN 1987A ejecta

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2019-12-04 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

We present high angular resolution (~80 mas) ALMA continuum images of the SN 1987A system, together with CO JJ=2  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 1, JJ=6  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 5, and SiO JJ=5  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 4 to JJ=7  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 6 images, which clearly resolve the ejecta (dust continuum and molecules) and ring (synchrotron continuum) components. Dust in the ejecta is asymmetric and clumpy, and overall the dust fills the spatial void seen in Hα\alpha images, filling that region with material from heavier elements. The dust clumps generally fill the space where CO JJ=6  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 5 is fainter, tentatively indicating that these dust clumps and CO are locationally and chemically linked. In these regions, carbonaceous dust grains might have formed after dissociation of CO. The dust grains would have cooled by radiation, and subsequent collisions of grains with gas would also cool the gas, suppressing the CO JJ=6  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 5 intensity. The data show a dust peak spatially coincident with the molecular hole seen in previous ALMA CO JJ=2  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 1 and SiO JJ=5  ⁣ ⁣\!\rightarrow\! 4 images. That dust peak, combined with CO and SiO line spectra, suggests that the dust and gas could be at higher temperatures than the surrounding material, though higher density cannot be totally excluded. One of the possibilities is that a compact source provides additional heat at that location. Fits to the far-infrared--millimeter spectral energy distribution give ejecta dust temperatures of 18--23K. We revise the ejecta dust mass to Mdust=0.20.4\mathrm{M_{dust}} = 0.2-0.4M_\odot for carbon or silicate grains, or a maximum of <0.7<0.7M_\odot for a mixture of grain species, using the predicted nucleosynthesis yields as an upper limit.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.02960,
  title  = {High angular resolution ALMA images of dust and molecules in the SN 1987A ejecta},
  author = {Phil Cigan and Mikako Matsuura and Haley L. Gomez and Remy Indebetouw and Fran Abellán and Michael Gabler and Anita Richards and Dennis Alp and Tim Davis and Hans-Thomas Janka and Jason Spyromilio and M. J. Barlow and David Burrows and Eli Dwek and Claes Fransson and Bryan Gaensler and Josefin Larsson and P. Bouchet and Peter Lundqvist and J. M. Marcaide and C. -Y. Ng and Sangwook Park and Pat Roche and Jacco Th. van Loon and J. C. Wheeler and Giovanna Zanardo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.02960},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

32 pages, containing 19 figures and three appendices