# Dust formation in embryonic pulsar-aided supernova remnants

## TL;DR

This paper explores how energetic pulsar wind nebulae influence dust formation timing, size, and detectability in supernova remnants, revealing that pulsars can significantly alter dust evolution and observational signatures.

## Contribution

It introduces a model showing pulsars can accelerate or delay dust formation and affect dust size, providing explanations for observed discrepancies in supernova remnants.

## Key findings

- Pulsars with specific properties can delay dust formation by months to years.
- Pulsars can reduce dust size by a factor of 10 or more.
- Infrared dust emission from superluminous supernovae may be detectable up to 1000 Mpc.

## Abstract

We investigate effects of energetic pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) on dust formation and evolution. Dust emission has been observed in many supernova remnants that also have neutron stars as compact remnants. We study the dependence of dust formation time and size on properties of the ejecta and central pulsar. We find that a pulsar with an initial spin period $P \sim 1\mbox{-}10\,\rm ms$ and a dipole magnetic field $B \sim 10^{12\mbox{-}15}\,\rm G$ can either accelerate or delay dust formation, with a timescale of several months to over ten years, and reduce the average size of dust by a factor of $\sim$ 10 or more compared to the non-pulsar case. We also find that infrared dust emission may be detectable in typical superluminous supernovae out to $\sim$ 100-1000 Mpc in 2-5 years after the explosion, although this depends sensitively on the spectral index of nonthermal emission from the nebula. We discuss implications to previous supernova observations. Some discrepancies between dust formation models and observations, such as the formation time in SN1987A or the dust size in the Crab Nebula, could be explained by the influence of a pulsar, and knowledge of the dust emission will be important for future ALMA observations of superluminous supernovae.