Physics and Evolution of Supernova Remnants

532 Pages·2020·17.785 MB·English

by  Jacco Vink

Astronomy and Astrophysics Library
Jacco Vink
Physics and
Evolution
of Supernova
Remnants
Astronomy and Astrophysics Library
SeriesEditors
MartinA.Barstow,DepartmentofPhysicsandAstronomy,UniversityofLeicester,
Leicester,UK
AndreasBurkert,UniversityObservatoryMunich,Munich,Germany
AthenaCoustenis,LESIA,Paris-MeudonObservatory,Meudon,France
RobertoGilmozzi,EuropeanSouthernObservatory(ESO),Garching,Germany
GeorgesMeynet,GenevaObservatory,Versoix,Switzerland
ShinMineshige,DepartmentofAstronomy,KyotoUniversity,Kyoto,Japan
IanRobson,TheUKAstronomyTechnologyCentre,Edinburgh,UK
PeterSchneider,Argelander-InstitutfürAstronomie,Bonn,Germany
Steven N. Shore, Dipartimento di Fisica “Enrico Fermi”, Università di Pisa, Pisa,
Italy
Virginia Trimble, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California,
Irvine,CA,USA
DerekWard-Thompson,SchoolofPhysicalSciencesandComputing,Universityof
CentralLancashire,Preston,UK
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/848
Jacco Vink
Physics and Evolution
of Supernova Remnants
JaccoVink
AntonPannekoekInstitute/GRAPPA
UniversityofAmsterdam
Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
ISSN0941-7834 ISSN2196-9698 (electronic)
AstronomyandAstrophysicsLibrary
ISBN978-3-030-55229-9 ISBN978-3-030-55231-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55231-2
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Coverillustration:Theremnantofthehistoricalsupernovaof1604,alsoknownasKepler’ssupernova
remnant.TheimageisbasedonX-rayobservationsmadebyNASA’sChandraX-rayObservatory.The
coloursred,greenandbluecorrespondtoX-rayemissionlinesfromoxygen(0.5-0.7keV),ironL-shell
emission(0.7-1keV)andsiliconK-shellemission(1.7-1.9keV),respectively.
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG.
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Preface
When I started working on my PhD project on X-ray spectroscopy of supernova
remnants in 1995, one of the things that I missed was a good textbook covering
thevariousaspectsofsupernovaresearch.Thelibrarydidcontaintwobooksonthe
subject,IosifShklovsky’sSupernovae(1968)andTatjanaLozinskaya’sSupernovae
and Stellar Wind in the Interstellar Medium (1991). The latter was not that old
at the time, but it did not cover all aspects of supernova remnant research, and it
was published before the advent of X-ray imaging spectroscopy and very high-
energy gamma-ray astronomy. The book by Iosif Shklovsky was even then very
dated, and it was as much about supernovae as their remnants. But it was (and
still is) a fascinating read, comingfrom a person who contributedso much to our
understandingofthephysicsofsupernovaremnants.
Since I obtained my PhD in 1999, the situation concerning good background
materialonsupernovaremnantshasnotimproved.Therearenodedicatedbookson
supernova remnants, although there are several books on supernovae, such as the
recentSupernovaExplosions(2017)byD. Branchand J. C. Wheeler. In addition,
many aspects of supernova remnants are treated in various chapters in Handbook
of Supernovae (2018), edited by A. Alsabti and P. Murdin. I contributed myself
two chapters to this Handbook. Although the Handbook treats diverse aspects of
supernova remnants, it does not provide a coherent treatment. Of course, several
textbooks on the topics related to supernova remnants exist. I recommend in
particularthePhysicsoftheInterstellarandIntergalacticMedium(2011)byB.T.
Draine, and in terms of physics of shocks and plasma processes, the monographs
by Lyman Spitzer and the book Physics of Shock Waves and High-Temperature
Hydrodynamic Phenomena by Ya. Zel’dovich and Yu. Raizer provide continuous
inspiration.
Supernovaremnantshave been the subject of a numberof extensivereviews. I
wasauthoramongoneofthem,onX-rayspectroscopyofsupernovaremnant(2012)
[1173].Feedbackonthisreviewconvincedmethatabookonsupernovaremnants
would be appreciated. The review itself focussed on the X-ray aspects—not
treating multiwavelength aspects—although I smuggled in some multiwavelength
perspectives,aswell.
v
vi Preface
My aim with this book is to provide a complete overview of the relevant
physical processes that shape the evolution and observational characteristics of
supernovaremnants.Thebookshouldbea goodintroductionto graduatestudents
starting with a research project on supernova remnants, as well as provides the
background knowledge for experienced researchers. Given the diversity of topics
within supernova remnant research, it is difficult to have all knowledge at hand,
evenifsupernovaremnantsisaresearcher’smainfieldofexpertise.
It is this diversity that makes supernova remnants such fascinating objects to
study. Supernova remnants bring together shock and plasma physics, cosmic-ray
studies, aspects of the late stages of stellar evolution, the physics of pulsars, and
dustformationandemission. However,supernovaremnantsare rarelya topic that
is treated in a separate course, but at best a few classes will be dedicated to it.
This is likely the reason that there are many books on galaxies, or active galactic
nuclei,and no recentbooksonsupernovaremnants.However,I believethatsome
conceptsdetailedinthisbookcouldbegivenasbackgroundmaterialsforstudents
and researchers interested in shock physics, X-ray spectroscopy, or cosmic-ray
acceleration.
Thecurrentbooktreatsalltheseaspects.Itsformatisa hybridofamonograph
on the basics of underlyingphysics and more review-typechapters on the current
observational knowledge. The textbook aspects dominate the chapters on shock
physics(Chap.4),hydrodynamicevolution(Chap.5),dustemissionandformation
(Chap.7),opticalemission(Chap.8),andcosmic-rayacceleration(Chap.11).The
chaptersonyoung(Chap.9)andoldersupernovaremnants(Chap.10)aremoreof
reviewtypeinnature.Finally,thechaptersonthesupernovaremnantclassification
andpopulation(Chap.3)andpulsarwindnebulaeandneutronstars(Chap.6)areby
themselvesahybridofexplainingbasicconceptsandprovidingreviewmaterial.
In my review of X-ray spectroscopy of supernova remnants, I provided an
introductiontotherelevantX-rayemissionmechanisms.Forthisbook,Iextended
the treatment of radiation mechanisms to include the various mechanisms for
non-thermal radiation, including pion decay. I also included more material on
forbidden-line formation, which is important for the optical properties of mature
supernova remnants. As a large fraction of the material presented here is quite
generic to many high-energyastrophysical sources, I placed the material on radi-
ationphysicsinaseparatechapterattheendofthebook.Despitethemoregeneric
character, there are several radiative properties that are particularly of interest
to supernova remnants, such as the appearance of cooling breaks in synchrotron
spectra,non-equilibriumionisation,andbroadradiativerecombinationcontinuafor
X-ray spectra. Nevertheless, because of the generic aspects, I imagine that this
chapter, as a standalone text, may be used for a course in radiative physics in
astronomy, or a high-energy astrophysics course – I certainly will use it as such
myself.
Many of the figures in this book were made by myself. I opted for this as it
allowed for more uniform style of the figures, and also because creating figures
allowed me to come to grasp with the underlying physics and gain more hands-
onknowledge.Moreover,Ienjoyedthismethodologyofthebook-writingprocess.
Preface vii
This is in particular true for making multicolour images of supernova remnants.
Afterall,oneofthemotivationsforsupernovaremnantstudiesisthattheymakefor
suchaestheticallypleasingobjects.
Inwritingthetext,Ididnotshyawayofsparinglyputtinginnovelviews.Atext
like this should be as much a compendiumof accumulatedknowledge,as well as
providea stimulantforfurtherstudyanddiscussion.Thereadershould,therefore,
be warned not to take the current text as a monolithic source of knowledge, but
approachitcritically,asa startingpointforfurtherstudy.But, I also encourageto
consulttheoriginalsourcematerial.
Although I write this preface in the first person, in the book I adopted the
moreneutralwe. Foronething,mostofwhatiswrittendoesnotconcernmyown
contribution,butthecontributionsofmanyresearchers.So,thewestandsforallthe
researchers who contributed to the current understanding of supernova remnants.
Andof course,the we standsforthe author(me) andthe readertogether.Another
textualaspectoneencountersinwritinganextensivebookasthisisthesymbolsfor
physicalquantities.Manysymbolsarecommonlyassociatedwithcertainquantities,
mformass,vforvelocity,pformomentum,etc.Butconventionsdiffersometimes
perfield.Forexample,incosmic-rayaccelerationtheoryoftenuisusedforvelocity.
Sometimes, the conventions clash. For example, the adiabatic index is usually
denotedbyγ,butsoistheLorentzfactor.Iused(cid:3)fortheLorentzfactor,butthen(cid:3)
isalsooftenusedforthespectralindexinγ-rayastronomy.AnotherexampleisE,
whichisusedtodenoteenergy,butalsoelectric-fieldstrength.Isometimessolved
theseclashesbyusingadifferentfontstyle—IusedE fortheelectricfieldandV
forvolume.But,itisimpossibletoinventanewsymbolforallsuchcases,letalone
coming up with symbols for the various tuning parameters α, β, η, etc. I tried to
avoidconfusionbyclearlyoutliningthedefinitionincasethereareconflicts,orby
usingsubscripts.
The book contains an extended list of references. The astrophysical practice
of using the author–date system for references can make texts sometimes look
crammed. For that reason, I opted for the system of numbered references. An
additional advantage is that the more concise format makes it easier to use these
intables.
As already mentioned, I wrote an extensive review on X-ray spectroscopy of
supernovaremnants.Myinitialideawastousethatasthebasisforthisbook.Inthe
end, most of the text presented here is new, but some of the chapters contain text
borrowed from the review. The review itself took quite some time to finish. So, I
knewwhatIwasuptowhenIexpressedmyambitiontowriteabookonthetopic
to Harry Blom, nowvice-presidentJournals,Development,Policy and Strategy at
SpringerNature,whowasonceaclosecolleague,whenwewerebothPhDstudents
atSRON,Utrecht.Ourinitialconversationledtoacontract,andIstartedwritingin
earnestin 2015.Despite knowingbeforehandthatwritinga bookis a majortime-
consuming endeavour, it still took me longer to finish the text than I anticipated.
But,perhapsweneedsomemisguidedoptimismtogetstartedatall!
The writing of the book was greatly helped by the involvement of the PhD
students and postdocs in my group. They proofread some of the chapters, but it
viii Preface
alsohelpedthateverynowandthenIprovidedthemwiththechaptersasasource
of information. This often led to sharpening the text, correcting mistakes, and it
helped me to appreciate the value of having (already) a book at hand to refer to.
Therefore, my special thanks to Maria Arias, Laura Driessen, Vladimir Domcˇek,
DimitrisKantzas,SunLei,DmitryProkhorov,RachelSimoni,andPingZhou,past
and current members of my research group during the writing process. I would
alsoliketothankgroupmembersinamoredistantpast,whohavehelpedtoshape
myknowledgeofthetopic:SjorsBroersen,AlexandrosChiotellis,EvelineHelder,
Daria Kosenko, and Klara Schure. In this context, it is also worth mentioningmy
PhDsupervisorsJohanBleekerandJelleKaastra,whointroducedmetothefieldof
high-energyemissionfromsupernovaremnantsandX-rayspectroscopy.
Thefinalworkonthebookwascarriedoutunderpeculiarcircumstances,during
the Covid-19pandemic.On the one hand,it led to new distractionssuch as home
schooling, and many online meetings. But on the other hand, it put to halt all the
traveling that comes with being a scientist and instead allowed me to focus on
completingthe text. In this last phase, invaluablelessons on time managementby
AnneBakerwereputtouse,whichhelpedmefinishingthebook.
Finally,Iwouldliketothankmyfamily,Sonja,Tamar,andGuido,forindulging
myfrequentexcusesforsecludingmyselfinmyofficetofinishthisundertaking.
Amsterdam,TheNetherlands JaccoVink
Contents
1 Introduction................................................................. 1
2 Supernovae.................................................................. 5
2.1 TheOpticalClassificationofSupernovae........................... 8
2.1.1 SpectroscopicClassification ............................... 8
2.1.2 SupernovaLightCurveClassification..................... 10
2.1.3 TheSupernovaRatesPerType............................. 12
2.2 Core-CollapseSupernovae........................................... 13
2.2.1 Pre-explosionComposition ................................ 13
2.2.2 NeutronStarandBlackHoleFormation .................. 14
2.2.3 TheExplosionMechanism................................. 15
2.2.4 Electron-CaptureSupernovaeof8–10M(cid:2) Stars ......... 16
2.2.5 Core-CollapseSupernovaEjectaComposition............ 17
2.3 Thermonuclear(TypeIa)Supernovae............................... 18
2.3.1 TheSingleDegenerateVersusDoubleGenerate
Channel ..................................................... 19
2.3.2 ThermonuclearExplosions:DeflagrationVersus
Detonation .................................................. 21
2.3.3 TheDiversityAmongTypeIaSupernova................. 23
2.4 DetectionofRadio-ActiveElementsfromSupernovae ............ 26
2.5 LightEchoes.......................................................... 27
3 ClassificationandPopulation ............................................. 33
3.1 MorphologicalClassificationofSupernovaRemnants............. 33
3.2 TheGalacticSupernovaRemnantPopulation ...................... 36
3.2.1 FindingandNamingSupernovaRemnants................ 37
3.2.2 MeasuringDistancestoSupernovaRemnants ............ 38
3.2.3 The(cid:7)-DRelation.......................................... 40
3.3 TheSpatialDistributionofKnownGalacticSupernova
Remnants ............................................................. 43
3.4 TheSupernova-RemnantPopulationintheMagellanicClouds ... 46
3.5 SupernovaRemnantPopulationsinOtherGalaxies................ 50
ix