SOFIA/HAWC+ observations of the Crab Nebula: dust properties from polarised emission

TL;DR

This study detects and analyzes polarised dust emission in the Crab Nebula, revealing large grains and constraining dust composition, temperature, and mass, thereby advancing understanding of dust production in supernova remnants.

Contribution

First detection of polarised dust emission in the Crab Nebula, providing new constraints on dust grain properties and composition in a supernova remnant.

Findings

Detected polarised dust emission at 89 and 154 micrometers.

Found large grains (>0.05-0.1 micrometers) in the nebula.

Constrained dust temperatures between 30-70 K and masses from 10^{-4} to 10^{-1} solar masses.

Abstract

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are well-recognised dust producers, but their net dust production rate remains elusive due to uncertainties in grain properties that propagate into observed dust mass uncertainties, and determine how efficiently these grains are processed by reverse shocks. In this paper, we present a detection of polarised dust emission in the Crab pulsar wind nebula, the second SNR with confirmed polarised dust emission after Cassiopeia A. We constrain the bulk composition of the dust with new SOFIA/HAWC+ polarimetric data in band C 89 um and band D 154 um. After correcting for synchrotron polarisation, we report dust polarisation fractions ranging between 3.7-9.6 per cent and 2.7-7.6 per cent in three individual dusty filaments at 89 and 154 um, respectively. The detected polarised signal suggests the presence of large (> 0.05-0.1 um) grains in the Crab Nebula. With the observed polarisation, and polarised and total fluxes, we constrain the temperatures and masses of carbonaceous and silicate grains. We find that the carbon-rich grain mass fraction varies between 12 and 70 per cent, demonstrating that carbonaceous and silicate grains co-exist in this SNR. Temperatures range from 40 K to 70 K and from 30 K to 50 K for carbonaceous and silicate grains, respectively. Dust masses range from 10^{-4} Msol to 10^{-2} Msol for carbonaceous grains and to 10^{-1} Msol for silicate grains, in three individual regions.