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P. Ghavamian, J P Hughes, C E Rakowski, T B Williams (Rutgers University)
We present Fabry-Perot observations of the Balmer-dominated supernova remnant DEM 71 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Fabry-Perot scans in Halpha show strong variations in surface brightness and shock curvature along the rim of the remnant, indicating that the blast wave has encountered overdense regions in the surrounding ISM. Radiative shock emission can also be seen in several localized regions along the edge of this supernova remnant. Chandra images of DEM 71 show that the X-ray and optical morphologies are remarkably similar. Since the Balmer-dominated emission originates in the forward shock (the blast wave), we conclude that the X-ray emission is also dominated by the forward shock. We observe faint X-ray emission near the center of DEM 71, which we attribute to the reverse shock. DEM 71 offers us a valuable opportunity to compare shock velocities and electron-ion equilibrations derived from Balmer line profiles with parameters predicted by the X-ray data.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: parviz@physics.rutgers.edu