2008/06/27 by K. M. Schure, Jacco Vink, J. Vink +3 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/591432
9 pages, 5 figures, ApJ accepted. Version with high resolution figures available at http://www.phys.uu.nl/~schure/CasA_jet.pdf
arxiv created 2008/06/27 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We present hydrodynamical models for the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant and its observed jet/counterjet system. We include the evolution of the progenitor's circumstellar medium, which is shaped by a slow red supergiant wind that is followed by a fast Wolf-Rayet (WR) wind. The main parameters of the simulations are the duration of the WR phase and the jet energy. We find that the jet is destroyed if the WR phase is sufficiently long and a massive circumstellar shell has formed. We therefore conclude that the WR phase must have been short (a few thousand years), if present at all. Since the actual jet length of Cas A is not known, we derive a lower limit for the jet energy, which is ~10 48 erg. We discuss the implications for the progenitor of Cas A and the nature of its explosion.