Unveiling the spatial structure of the overionized plasma in the supernova remnant W49B

TL;DR

This study uses advanced 2D hydrodynamic modeling to reveal how thermal conduction and plasma cooling processes create overionized regions in supernova remnant W49B, aligning well with observations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive 2D hydrodynamic model that incorporates ejecta mixing, thermal conduction, and ionization deviations to explain overionization in W49B.

Findings

Thermal conduction causes evaporation of circumstellar material, cooling plasma and forming jet-like structures.

Overionized plasma results from rapid cooling due to mixing and adiabatic expansion.

Model predictions of radiative recombination continuum match observational data.

Abstract

W49B is a mixed-morphology supernova remnant with thermal X-ray emission dominated by the ejecta. In this remnant, the presence of overionized plasma has been directly established, with information about its spatial structure. However, the physical origin of the overionized plasma in W49B has not yet been understood. We investigate this intriguing issue through a 2D hydrodynamic model that takes into account, for the first time, the mixing of ejecta with the inhomogeneous circumstellar and interstellar medium, the thermal conduction, the radiative losses from optically thin plasma, and the deviations from equilibrium of ionization induced by plasma dynamics. The model was set up on the basis of the observational results. We found that the thermal conduction plays an important role in the evolution of W49B, in- ducing the evaporation of the circumstellar ring-like cloud (whose presence has been deduced from previous observations) that mingles with the surrounding hot medium, cooling down the shocked plasma, and pushes the ejecta backwards to the center of the remnant, forming there a jet-like structure. During the evolution, a large region of overionized plasma forms within the remnant. The overionized plasma originates from the rapid cooling of the hot plasma originally heated by the shock reflected from the dense ring-like cloud. In particular, we found two different ways for the rapid cooling of plasma to appear: i) the mixing of relatively cold and dense material evaporated from the ring with the hot shocked plasma and ii) the rapid adiabatic expansion of the ejecta. The spatial distribution of the radiative recombination continuum predicted by the numerical model is in good agreement with that observed.