New Insights into SNR Evolution Revealed by the Discovery of Recombining Plasmas

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of recombining plasmas in three supernova remnants using Suzaku, revealing overionized states likely caused by rapid cooling after initial dense interactions, with implications for SNR evolution.

Contribution

It provides the first clear evidence of recombining plasmas in multiple SNRs and proposes a new scenario for their overionization related to dense circumstellar interactions.

Findings

Detection of radiative recombination continua in three SNRs.

Recombining plasmas are associated with mixed-morphology SNRs.

Analysis supports rapid electron cooling after dense interactions.

Abstract

We report the discovery of recombining plasmas in three supernova remnants (SNRs) with the Suzaku X-ray astronomy satellite. During SNR's evolution, the expanding supernova ejecta and the ambient matter are compressed and heated by the reverse and forward shocks to form an X-ray emitting hot plasma. Since ionization proceeds slowly compared to shock heating, most young or middle-aged SNRs have ionizing (underionized) plasmas. Owing to high sensitivity of Suzaku, however, we have detected radiative recombination continua (RRCs) from the SNRs IC 443, W49B, and G359.1-0.5. The presence of the strong RRC is the definitive evidence that the plasma is recombining (overionized). As a possible origin of the overionization, an interaction between the ejecta and dense circumstellar matter is proposed; the highly ionized gas was made at the initial phase of the SNR evolution in dense regions, and subsequent rapid adiabatic expansion caused sudden cooling of the electrons. The analysis on the full X-ray band spectrum of IC 443, which is newly presented in this paper, provides a consistent picture with this scenario. We also comment on the implications from the fact that all the SNRs having recombining plasmas are correlated with the mixed-morphology class.