The sculpting of rectangular and jet-like morphologies in supernova remnants by anisotropic equatorially confined progenitor stellar winds

Abstract

Thermonuclear and core-collapse supernova remnants (SNRs) are the nebular leftovers of defunct stars. Their morphology and emission properties provide insights into the evolutionary history of the progenitor star. But while some SNRs are spherical, as expected from a point-like explosion expanding into a roughly uniform medium, many others exhibit complex non-spherical morphologies which are often not easily explained. In this work, we use three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to show that rectangular and jet-like morphologies can be explained by supernovae (SNe), either type Ia or type II, expanding within anisotropic, bipolar stellar wind bubbles driven by the progenitor star. The stellar wind has an anisotropic density distribution, which channels the SN ejecta differently depending on the anisotropy characteristics. We compute synthetic thermal (X-ray) and non-thermal (synchrotron) emission maps from our numerical simulations to compare with observations. We find rectangular morphologies are generated when the stellar wind has a high mass loss rate and forms a dense, narrow disk at the equatorial region. Instead, a jet-like or ear-like morphology is obtained when the stellar wind develops a wide, dense disk. Stellar winds with low mass-loss rates do not strongly influence the SNR morphology. Finally, our synthetic synchrotron and X-ray maps for the high mass-loss rate case qualitatively agree with the observations of the SNRs G332.5-5.6 and G290.1-0.8.

Inside the core of a young massive star cluster: 3D MHD simulations

“…Additionally, collisions between supernova remnants and stellar winds from nearby massive stars have been simulated using both hydrodynamic and MHD models (e.g. Badmaev & Bykov 2021;Velázquez et al 2003Velázquez et al , 2023.…”

Mixing of materials in magnetized core-collapse supernova remnants

“…It underlined how this mechanism may participate in the shaping of the rectangular supernova remnant Puppis A (Meyer et al 2022). The choice of a 35 M progenitor had been motivated by conclusions from observations of Puppis A (Paron et al 2008), although alternative scenarios with lower-mass scenarios are currently considered (Velázquez et al 2023). Our work continues this numerical effort by exploring the bulk motion of the same Wolf-Rayet-evolving progenitor.…”

Classifying Core Collapse Supernova Remnants by Their Morphology as Shaped by the Last Exploding Jets

“…The second row refers to my suggestion as to the main (but not sole) effect that determines the morphological properties of the last jets to be launched in the explosion process according to the JJEM (Section 3). I assume that the main shaping of the morphology is by jets and not by other processes, such as the magnetic field of the interstellar medium (ISM, e.g., Wu & Zhang 2019;Velázquez et al 2023). The variable j p is the pre-collapse average specific angular momentum of the core material that the newly born NS accretes as it launches jets; "p" stands for pre-collapse rotation which has a fixed direction.…”

“…The main point to take from this section is that in the frame of the JJEM the pre-collapse core rotation, or more specifically the ratio j p /j f , is the main parameter that determines the outer large-scale morphology of CCSNRs. Other factors are the nonlinear instabilities that occur during the explosion, the possible presence of a binary companion, circumstellar material into which the ejecta expand (e.g., Velázquez et al 2023), the energy of the explosion and the ejecta mass, and the ISM (in particular with a strong magnetic field, e.g., Wu & Zhang 2019;Velázquez et al 2023).…”