The Dust Mass of Supernova Remnants in M31

TL;DR

This study estimates the dust temperature and mass of supernova remnants in M31 using infrared data, revealing their heating effects, dust destruction, and evolutionary stage, which enhances understanding of supernova impacts on dust in galaxies.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed infrared-based measurements of dust properties in M31's supernova remnants, highlighting dust destruction and remnant evolution.

Findings

Average dust temperature of 20.1 K in SNRs

Dust mass ranges from 100 to 800 solar masses

Approximately half of the dust in SNRs is destroyed

Abstract

The dust temperature and mass of the supernova remnants (SNRs) in M31 are estimated by fitting the infrared spectral energy distribution calculated from the images in the Spitzer/IRAC4 and MIPS24, Herschel/PACS70, 100, 160, and Herschel/SPIRE250, 350$\mu$m band. Twenty SNRs with relatively reliable photometry exhibit an average dust temperature of $20.1^{+1.8}_{-1.5}$K, which is higher than the surrounding and indicating the heating effect of supernova explosion. The dust mass of these SNRs ranges from about 100 to 800$ M_{\odot}$, much bigger than the SNRs in the Milky Way. On the other hand, this yields the dust surface density of $0.10^{+0.07}_{-0.04}{ M_{\odot} \rm pc^{-2}}$, about half of the surrounding area, which implies that about half dust in the SNRs is destroyed by the supernova explosion. The dust temperature, the radius, and thus the dust mass all demonstrate that the studied SNRs are old and very likely in the snowplow or even fade away phase because of the limitation by the far distance and observation resolution of M31, and the results can serve as a reference to the final effect of supernova explosion on the surrounding dust.