L. A. Lopez et al 2009 ApJ 706 L106 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/706/1/L106
L. A. Lopez1,6, E. Ramirez-Ruiz1, C. Badenes2, D. Huppenkothen3, T. E. Jeltema4 and D. A. Pooley5
Show affiliationsWe present a new observational method to type the explosions of young supernova remnants (SNRs). By measuring the morphology of the Chandra X-ray line emission in 17 Galactic and Large Magellanic Cloud SNRs with a multipole expansion analysis (using power ratios), we find that the core-collapse SNRs are statistically more asymmetric than the Type Ia SNRs. We show that the two classes of supernovae can be separated naturally using this technique because X-ray line morphologies reflect the distinct explosion mechanisms and structure of the circumstellar material. These findings are consistent with recent spectropolarimetry results showing that core-collapse supernovae explosions are intrinsically more asymmetric.
methods: data analysis; supernova remnants; supernovae: general; X-rays: ISM
Issue 1 (2009 November 20)
Received 2009 August 26, accepted for publication 2009 October 16
Published 2009 November 2
L. A. Lopez et al 2009 ApJ 706 L106