Measurement of the Forward Shock Velocities of the Supernova Remnant N132D Based on the Thermal X-Ray Emission

Abstract

Measuring shock velocities is crucial for understanding the energy transfer processes at the shock fronts of supernova remnants (SNRs), including acceleration of cosmic rays. Here we present shock velocity measurements on the SNR N132D, based on the thermal properties of the shock-heated interstellar medium. We apply a self-consistent model developed in our previous work to X-ray data from deep Chandra observations with an effective exposure of ∼900 ks. In our model, both temperature and ionization relaxation processes in postshock plasmas are simultaneously calculated, so that we can trace back to the initial condition of the shock-heated plasma to constrain the shock velocity. We reveal that the shock velocity ranges from 800 to 1500 km s−1 with moderate azimuthal dependence. Although our measurement is consistent with the velocity determined by independent proper motion measurements in the south rim regions, a large discrepancy between the two measurements (up to a factor of 4) is found in the north rim regions. This implies that a substantial amount of the kinetic energy has been transferred to the nonthermal component through highly efficient particle acceleration. Our results are qualitatively consistent with the gamma-ray observations of this SNR.