Numerical Simulations of Supernova Dust Destruction. I. Cloud-crushing and Post-processed Grain Sputtering

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to analyze how supernova reverse shocks destroy dust grains, revealing size and composition-dependent survival rates and the influence of cooling and shock velocity.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation framework incorporating grain sputtering and cooling effects to assess dust destruction in supernova remnants.

Findings

Small grains (<0.1 microns) are mostly destroyed by sputtering.

Larger grains tend to survive the reverse shock.

Dust survival strongly depends on shock velocity and grain composition.

Abstract

We investigate through hydrodynamic simulations the destruction of newly-formed dust grains by sputtering in the reverse shocks of supernova remnants. Using an idealized setup of a planar shock impacting a dense, spherical clump, we implant a population of Lagrangian particles into the clump to represent a distribution of dust grains in size and composition. We then post-process the simulation output to calculate the grain sputtering for a variety of species and size distributions. We explore the parameter space appropriate for this problem by altering the over-density of the ejecta clumps and the speed of the reverse shocks. Since radiative cooling could lower the temperature of the medium in which the dust is embedded and potentially protect the dust by slowing or halting grain sputtering, we study the effects of different cooling methods over the time scale of the simulations. In general, our results indicate that grains with radii less than 0.1 microns are sputtered to much smaller radii and often destroyed completely, while larger grains survive their interaction with the reverse shock. We also find that, for high ejecta densities, the percentage of dust that survives is strongly dependent on the relative velocity between the clump and the reverse shock, causing up to 50% more destruction for the highest velocity shocks. The fraction of dust destroyed varies widely across grain species, ranging from total destruction of Al2O3 grains to minimal destruction of Fe grains (only 20% destruction in the most extreme cases). C and SiO2 grains show moderate to strong sputtering as well, with 38% and 80% mass loss. The survival rate of grains formed by early supernovae is crucial in determining whether or not they can act as the "dust factories" needed to explain high-redshift dust.