Energetics and Birth Rates of Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud

TL;DR

This study models 50 supernova remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud to determine their explosion energies, ages, and birthrate, revealing a typical explosion energy of 0.5×10^{51} erg and a birthrate of one every 500 years.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive modeling of SNR energetics and birthrates in the LMC using X-ray data, including distributions of explosion energies and ambient densities.

Findings

SNR birthrate in LMC is approximately 1 per 500 years.

Explosion energies follow a log-normal distribution centered at 0.5×10^{51} erg.

Ambient medium densities are broadly distributed with a most probable value of 0.1 cm^{-3}.

Abstract

Published X-ray emission properties for a sample of 50 supernova remnants (SNRs) in the LMC are used as input for SNR evolution modelling calculations. The forward shock emission is modelled to obtain the initial explosion energy, age, and circumstellar medium density for each SNR in the sample. The resulting age distribution yields a SNR birthrate of 1/(500 yr) for the LMC. The explosion energy distribution is well fit by a log-normal distribution, with most-probable explosion energy of $0.5\times10^{51}$erg, with a 1-$\sigma$ dispersion by factor 3 in energy. The circumstellar medium density distribution is broader than the explosion energy distribution, with most-probable density of $\sim$0.1 cm$^{-3}$. The shape of the density distribution can be fit with a log-normal distribution, with incompleteness at high density caused by shorter evolution times of SNRs.