Dissecting the hot bubbles in LMC-N57 with XMM-Newton

TL;DR

This study uses XMM-Newton data to analyze hot bubbles and diffuse X-ray emission in the star-forming region LMC-N57, revealing the influence of massive stars and clarifying the origin of the superbubble's X-ray emission.

Contribution

It provides detailed X-ray mapping of hot gas in LMC-N57 and demonstrates that the superbubble's X-ray emission is driven by stellar winds, not supernova explosions.

Findings

X-ray emission detected from SB DEM L 229, SNR 0532-675, and WR bubble DEM L 231.

Hot gas distribution correlates with cold filamentary structures.

Superbubble's X-ray emission explained by pressure-driven wind model.

Abstract

We present a study of the diffuse X-ray emission from the star forming region LMC-N 57 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We use archival XMM-Newton observations to unveil in detail the distribution of hot bubbles in this complex. X-ray emission is detected from the central superbubble (SB) DEM L 229, the supernova remnant (SNR) 0532$-$675 and the Wolf-Rayet (WR) bubble DEM L 231 around the WR star Br 48. Comparison with infrared images unveils the powerful effect of massive stars in destroying their nurseries. The distribution of the hot gas in the SNR and the SB display their maxima in regions in contact with the filamentary cold material detected by IR images. Our observations do not reveal extended X-ray emission filling DEM L 231, although several point-like sources are detected in the field of view of this WR nebula. The X-ray properties of Br 48 are consistent with a binary WN4$+$O as proposed by other authors. We modeled the X-ray emission from the SB and found that its X-ray emission can be simply explained by pressure-driven wind model, that is, there is no need to invoke the presence of a SN explosion as previously suggested. The pressure calculations of the hot gas confirms that the dynamical evolution of the SB DEM L 229 is dominated by the stellar winds from the star cluster LH 76.