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# The Pulsar Wind Nebula of G11.2-0.3

## 1. Introduction

The supernova remnant G11.2$``$0.3 is a bright, circular X-ray and radio shell. At its center is the X-ray pulsar PSR J1811$``$1925 ($`P=65`$ ms, spin-down energy $`\dot{E}=6.4\times 10^{36}`$ erg/s, characteristic age $`\tau =24,000`$ yrs, Torii et al. 1999) and its associated hard X-ray wind nebula (Vasisht et al. 1996). The characteristic age is much greater than the apparent age of the SNR ($`2000`$ yrs), the age implied by its highly centralized position within the remnant, and its likely association with the historical event of 386 A.D. (Kaspi et al. 2001). This discrepancy suggests the pulsar’s current spin period is very near its initial value, and that $`\dot{E}`$ has remained nearly constant since the supernova explosion.

## 2. Radio and X-ray Analysis

Radio observations of G11.2$``$0.3 were made with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 20 and 6 cm between April 1984 and May 1985. To measure the spectral index $`\alpha `$, where $`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$, we spacially filtered the $`uv`$ coverages to match spatial scales (Gaensler et al. 1999) by creating a model visibility data set from the 20 cm image with the $`uv`$ sky distribution of the 6 cm data. A 20 cm image was then created from this model with identical parameters as the 6 cm image, and both were convolved with a 10<sup>′′</sup> Gaussian.

To determine spectral indices, we used “spectral tomography” (Katz-Stone & Rudnick 1997). A difference image $`I_{\alpha _t}`$ was calculated by scaling the 6 cm image by a trial spectral index $`\alpha _t`$, and subtracting it from the 20 cm image: $`I_{\alpha _t}=I_{20}(\nu _{20}/\nu _6)^{\alpha _t}I_6`$, where $`I_{20}`$ and $`I_6`$ were the images being compared, and $`\nu _{20}`$ and $`\nu _6`$ were the average frequencies of the images. When the trial spectral index reached the actual spectral index of a particular feature, ie. $`\alpha _t=\alpha `$, that region appeared to vanish into the local background of the difference image (Figure 1). By examining the resulting series of difference images, we estimate $`\alpha _P=0.25\pm 0.05`$ for the PWN region in the center, while for the majority of the SNR shell we estimate a value of $`\alpha _S=0.56\pm 0.02`$, which is in agreement with single-dish radio results as published by Kothes & Reich (2001). However, the SNR shell appears to have a non-uniform spectral index, most noticeable in the south-eastern region. Negative residuals can be seen at $`\alpha _t=0.52`$ in the outer component of the SNR shell, and lingering positive residuals appear at $`\alpha _t=0.58`$ in the inner shell, indicating that the spectrum of the outer shell is slightly flatter, and the inner shell slightly steeper, than the bulk of the remnant.

Chandra observed G11.2$``$0.3 with the ACIS-S3 CCD on 2000 August 6 (obs 1) for 20 ks and 2000 October 15 (obs 2) for 15 ks. The analysis reported here was performed without the improved S3 FEF files, and we are currently re-analysing the data using the newer calibration. We created exposure corrected “soft” band (0.6-1.65 keV) and “hard” band (4-9 keV) images to show regions of thermal and non-thermal emission, respectively. We extracted spectra from the regions indicated in Figure 2b. The interior background region was used when fitting features inside the shell and an exterior region as background for the shell (not shown).

We fit the shell region (1) and the soft “PWN” region (4) spectra to the VPShock model plus absorption in XSPEC using spatially weighted response files, fitting for elemental abundances that could be constrained by the data. We added a power-law model when fitting region (1) due to an excess of hard photons in that region. The results suggest the region (4) spectrum is slightly cooler than region (1) ($`kT0.42`$ keV vs. $`kT0.55`$ keV) and has higher abundances of O, Ne, Mg, and S. For the hard PWN (regions 2 and 3), we fixed the VPShock values from the region (4) fit, allowing only the normalization to vary and adding a power-law. The resulting photon spectral index was $`1.5\pm 0.2`$ and the unabsorbed power-law flux of regions (2) (the entire PWN minus the pulsar) and (3) (the bright portion of the PWN) were $`4.1\times 10^{12}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`7.3\times 10^{13}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ respectively.

The hard band images from the two observation epochs show two bright “spots” in region (3) near the pulsar (Figure 2a). Assuming a distance of 5 kpc to the remnant, spot 1 is $`0.20`$ pc and spot 2 is $`0.34`$ pc from the pulsar. Between epochs, the centroided positions of the spots moved significantly away from the pulsar, implying space velocities of $`c`$, with the relative velocity of spot 2 $`{}_{}{}^{2}/_{3}^{}`$ that of spot 1.

## 3. Discussion

The separation between the PWN and the inner edge of the shell in both radio and X-rays suggests that the remnant may not have reached the Sedov phase. This would imply the supernova ejecta within the shell, which interacts with the PWN, is still in the free expansion phase. The shell itself, however, has probably swept up enough mass to be between the free expansion and Sedov solutions. The expansion of the PWN into the ejecta is supersonic, and should set up a forward shock. This heats the ejecta, possibly resulting in the regions of thermal emission seen interior to the shell. The apparent symmetry around the pulsar of this soft “PWN” emission (region 4), along with the relatively greater abundances of heavy elements compared with the bright shell, support this picture. The radio PWN on the one side is sandwiched between the bright, narrow, jet-like hard X-ray feature and the soft “PWN” region, which also suggests a connection. Simple spherical models of PWN expansion (eg. Reynolds & Chevalier 1984) into the freely expanding interior of an SNR suggest that the ratio of the PWN radius to the SNR radius should be $`0.2`$, assuming that the shell is also freely expanding into the ISM. The larger observed ratio of $`0.3`$ is expected if the shell has slowed due to accumulated ISM mass but the reverse shock has not yet encountered the PWN and compressed it.

The bright spots in the hard X-ray nebula may be the equivalent of the Crab’s “wisps”. The motion of wisps may be interpreted in the framework of ion mediated relativistic shocks (Gallant & Arons 1994). We can estimate $`\sigma `$ (Kennel & Coroniti 1984), the ratio of Poynting to particle momentum flux in the wind from the expansion velocity of the PWN (assuming $`d5`$ kpc and an age of 1600 yrs) as $`\sigma V/c0.002`$. We estimate the magnetic field in the shocked flow $`B3(\sigma \dot{E}/(4\pi r_s^2c))^{1/2}=3\mu G`$ if we assume the position of the wind termination shock $`r_s`$ is approximately that of spot 1. If we identify the distance between the two bright spots, with the ion gyration radius $`r_{L,i}`$, we find the ions have passed through $`3\sigma ^{1/2}r_{L,i}/r_s0.1`$ of the total potential drop through the open magnetosphere, similar to the Crab’s value of 0.3. We conclude that both the geometry and dynamics (nearly relativistic motion) of the bright spots observed near PSR J1811$``$1925 are consistent with the ion mediated relativistic shock model of Gallant and Arons.

## References

Gaensler, B. M. et al. 1999, MNRAS, 305, 724

Gallant, Y. A. & Arons, J. 1994, ApJ, 435, 230

Kaspi, V. M. et al. 2001, ApJ, 560, 371

Katz-Stone, D. M. & Rudnick, L. 1997, ApJ, 488, 146

Kennel, C. F. & Coroniti, F. V. 1984, ApJ, 283, 694

Kothes, R. & Reich, W. 2001, A&A, 372, 627

Reynolds, S. P. & Chevalier, R. A. 1984, ApJ, 278, 630

Torii, K. et al. 1999, ApJ, 523, L69

Vasisht, G. et al. 1996, ApJ, 456, 59


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# Tests of hard and soft QCD with e⁺e⁻ Annihilation Data

## 1  INTRODUCTION

Hadron production in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation is a well-suited process for the study of the interplay between hard and soft QCD. The lack of interference with the initial state improves the understanding of the hadronic final state in terms of QCD. The availability of data sets at many energy points with centre of mass (cms) energies $`\sqrt{s}`$ between 14 and 209 GeV allows to separate the hard and soft contributions.

The hard QCD processes, i.e. the radiation of gluons from the quarks produced at the electroweak vertex and subsequent higher order processes are well understood in perturbative QCD (pQCD) . The production of multi-jet events is clear evidence for the existence of gluons and is successfully described by pQCD.

The soft contributions to hadron production in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation are connected with the transition from the partons (quarks and gluons) generated by hard processes to the hadrons observed in the experiment. This transition is referred to as hadronisation and takes place at energy scales of approximately a light hadron mass, i.e. $`𝒪(100)`$ MeV, where pQCD calculations are not reliable due to the rapid growth of the strong coupling $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}`$. The soft contributions are known to scale like an inverse power of the cms energy; for most observables the scaling is $`1/\sqrt{s}`$.

## 2  POWER CORRECTIONS AND INFRARED RENORMALONS

At energy scales $`Q=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$ perturbative evolution of $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(Q)`$ breaks down completely due to the Landau pole at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$. It is therefore impossible to attempt pQCD calculations of soft processes without further assumptions.

In order to clarify which assumptions are needed a phenomenological model of hadronisation is considered. The longitudinal phase space model or tube model goes back to Feynman . One considers a $`\mathrm{q}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ system produced e.g. in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation in the cms system. The two primary partons move apart with velocity $`v/c1`$. In such a situation the production of soft gluons will be approximately independent of their (pseudo-) rapidity $`\eta ^{}=\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{tan}(\mathrm{\Theta }_i/2))`$, see figure 1.

The change to e.g. the observable Thrust $`1T`$ due to the production of a soft gluon at angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_i`$ with transverse momentum $`k_{\mathrm{t},i}`$ is $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1T)_ik_{\mathrm{t},i}/Qe^{|\eta _i^{}|}`$. This observation is generalised to write the soft or non-perturbative contribution to the mean value of the $`1T`$ distribution as follows:

$$1T_{\mathrm{NP}}=\frac{k_\mathrm{t}}{Q}\mathrm{\Phi }(k_\mathrm{t})\frac{\mathrm{d}k_\mathrm{t}}{k_\mathrm{t}}e^{|\eta ^{}|}𝑑\eta ^{}$$
(1)
The function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(k_\mathrm{t})\alpha _\mathrm{S}(k_\mathrm{t})`$ is the distribution of soft particles in $`k_\mathrm{t}`$. The first integral in equation (1) is summarised as $`\alpha _0/Q`$ independent of the observable and the second as a constant $`c_{1T}`$ dependent on the observable. The quantity $`\alpha _0\alpha _\mathrm{S}(k_\mathrm{t})dk_\mathrm{t}`$ can only exist when $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(k_\mathrm{t})`$ is identified with a non-perturbative strong coupling $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}^{\mathrm{NP}}(k_\mathrm{t})`$ which is assumed to be finite at low $`k_\mathrm{t}`$ around and below the Landau pole.

A more formal approach to the origin of soft contributions is the study of infrared renormalons, i.e. the divergence of asymptotic pQCD predictions due to the integration of low momenta in quark loops in gluon lines . The infrared renormalon divergence of the $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{S}^n)`$ term in a pQCD prediction is factorial in $`n`$: $`r_n\alpha _S^{n+1}(2\beta _0/p)^nn!\alpha _S^{n+1}`$. With Sterlings formula to replace $`n!`$ one finds $`r_n\alpha _S^{n+1}(2\beta _0\alpha _\mathrm{S}/p)^nn^ne^n\alpha _\mathrm{S}`$. The convergence of the series is optimal for $`n=p/(2\beta _0\alpha _\mathrm{S})`$. Based on this relation one finds

$$r_n\alpha _S^{n+1}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}}{Q}\right)^p$$
(2)
where the first order relation between $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$ has been used. The result shows that infrared renormalon contributions to pQCD predictions scale like $`Q^p`$ similar to the soft contribution studied in the tube model, see equation (1).

The power correction model of Dokshitzer, Marchesini and Webber (DMW) extracts the structure of power correction terms from analysis of infrared renormalon contributions . The model assumes that a non-perturbative strong coupling exists around and below the Landau pole and that the quantity $`\alpha _0(\mu _\mathrm{I})=1/\mu _\mathrm{I}_0^{\mu _\mathrm{I}}\alpha _\mathrm{S}^{\mathrm{NP}}(k_\mathrm{t})dk_\mathrm{t}`$ can be defined. The value of $`\mu _\mathrm{I}`$ is chosen to be safely within the perturbative region, usually $`\mu _\mathrm{I}=2`$ GeV.

The main result for the effects of power corrections on distributions $`F(y)`$ of the event shape observables $`1T`$, $`M_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`C`$ is that the perturbative prediction $`F_{\mathrm{PT}}(y)`$ is shifted :

$$F(y)=F_{\mathrm{PT}}(yc_\mathrm{y}P)$$
(3)
where $`c_\mathrm{y}`$ is an observable dependent constant and $`PM\mu _\mathrm{I}/Q(\alpha _0(\mu _\mathrm{I})\alpha _\mathrm{S})`$ is universal, i.e. independent of the observable . The factor $`P`$ contains the $`1/Q`$ scaling and the so-called Milan-factor $`M`$ which takes two-loop effects into account. The non-perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0`$ is explicitly matched with the perturbative strong coupling $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}`$. For the event shape observables $`B_\mathrm{T}`$ and $`B_\mathrm{W}`$ the predictions are more involved and the shape of the pQCD prediction is modified in addition to the shift . For mean values of $`1T`$, $`M_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`C`$ the prediction is:

$$y=y_{\mathrm{PT}}+c_\mathrm{y}P$$
(4)
For $`B_\mathrm{T}`$ and $`B_\mathrm{W}`$ the predictions are also more involved.

## 3  EXPERIMENTAL TESTS

Distributions and mean values of event shape observables measured in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation at many cms energy points between 14 and more than 200 GeV have been used recently by several groups to study power corrections . This report will present mainly results from . In all of these studies pQCD predictions in $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{S}^2)`$+NLLA  are used for event shape distributions while $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{S}^2)`$  predictions are employed for mean values. The pQCD predictions are added together with the power correction predictions. The resulting expressions are functions of the strong coupling $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ and of the non-perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0`$. The complete predictions are compared with data for event shape distributions or mean values as published by the experiments.

Figure 2 shows the results fitting the data for $`1T`$ distributions measured at cms energies from 14 to 189 GeV. The data from experiments at $`\sqrt{s}<M_\mathrm{Z}`$ are corrected for the effects of $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}`$ events . The data in the fitted regions are well reproduced by the theory (solid lines). The dotted lines present extrapolations outside of the fitted regions using the fit results for $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ and $`\alpha _0`$ which describe the data reasonably well. The agreement between theory and experiment is similar for the other observables.

Figure 3 (solid line) presents the result of a fit to measurements of $`M_\mathrm{H}^2`$ at $`\sqrt{s}=14`$ to 189 GeV. The data are well described by the fitted theory. The dotted line in figure 3 shows the perturbative part of the prediction; one observes that the soft (power correction) contributions increase at low $`\sqrt{s}`$.

The combined results from the analysis of distributions are $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})=0.1111_{0.0037}^{+0.0048}`$ and $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})=0.579_{0.072}^{+0.100}`$. The relatively small value of $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ compared e.g. to the world average $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})=0.1184\pm 0.0034`$  is due to small results from $`M_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`B_\mathrm{W}`$. The individual and the combined results are shown as points with one-standard-deviation error ellipses in figure 4 a).

From the analysis of mean values the combined results are $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})=0.1187_{0.0020}^{+0.0031}`$ and $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})=0.485_{0.045}^{+0.066}`$ in reasonable agreement with the results from distributions. Figure 4 b) presents the individual and combined results from fits to mean values as points with one-standard-deviation error ellipses. Combining both analyses yields the final results: $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})=0.1171_{0.0020}^{+0.0032}`$ and $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})=0.513_{0.045}^{+0.066}`$ .

Figure 5 shows a summary of results for $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ and $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})`$ obtained in comparable analyses by several groups . One observes reasonable agreement between the individual measurements. The comparable results for $`M_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`B_\mathrm{W}`$ from  and  differ, because in  hadron mass effects on power corrections are considered . The non-perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0`$ appears universal within about 20% as expected  while the values for $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ are compatible with the world average .

## 4  QCD COLOUR FACTORS

The analysis of event shape distributions described above can be generalised to study the gauge structure of QCD . The $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{S}^2)`$+NLLA pQCD predictions can be decomposed into additive terms which are proportional to products of the QCD colour factors. This analysis constitutes an experimental test of the gauge symmetry of QCD via radiative corrections. The values of the colour factors correspond to the relative size of contributions from three fundamental processes i) gluon radiation from a quark ($`C_\mathrm{F}`$), ii) conversion of a gluon in a $`\mathrm{q}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ pair ($`T_\mathrm{F}`$$`n_\mathrm{f}`$) and iii) radiation of a gluon from a gluon (triple gluon vertex TGV) ($`C_\mathrm{A}`$). Higher order processes like the quartic gluon vertex are not accessible with the available pQCD calculations.

The values of the colour factors are determined in the theory when a particular gauge symmetry group is chosen under which the Lagrangian of theory must be locally invariant. The local gauge symmetry for QCD is SU(3) with $`C_\mathrm{F}=4/3`$, $`C_\mathrm{A}=3`$ and $`T_\mathrm{F}=1/2`$. The number of active quark flavours is $`n_\mathrm{f}=5`$ at the cms energies of the currently available data. The perturbative evolution (running) of the strong coupling is also sensitive to the colour factors since quark loops and gluon loops have the opposite effect. In $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{S})`$ the evolution of the strong coupling between two scales $`Q`$ and $`\mu `$ is given by $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(Q)=\alpha _\mathrm{S}(\mu )/(1+2\beta _0\alpha _\mathrm{S}(\mu )\mathrm{ln}(Q/\mu ))`$ with $`\beta _0=(11C_\mathrm{A}2n_\mathrm{f})/(12\pi )`$.

The power correction calculations are also functions of the QCD colour factors. In the analysis the colour factors in the pQCD predictions as well as in the power corrections are considered as additional free parameters to be determined from the data. In this way the dependence on the hadronisation model is reduced compared to traditional analyses relying on Monte Carlo models of hadronisation, because in the Monte Carlo models the colour factors are fixed .

Figure 6 (top) shows the results of simultaneous fits of $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$, $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})`$ and one colour factor where the other colour factors have been kept fixed at their SU(3) values. The fits are stable with the observables $`1T`$ and $`C`$. Some fits are not stable with the observables $`B_\mathrm{T}`$ and $`B_\mathrm{W}`$. In alternative fits the non-perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0`$ was kept fixed at a previously measured value and is varied by its total error as a systematic uncertainty. The results and the uncertainties are consistent between the two types of fit. The variation of $`\alpha _0`$ in the fits avoids a possible bias which might be present when $`\alpha _0`$ is fixed to a value measured with colour factors fixed to their standard values. Combined results for the colour factors measured individually are $`n_\mathrm{f}=5.64\pm 1.35`$, $`C_\mathrm{A}=2.88\pm 0.27`$ and $`C_\mathrm{F}=1.45\pm 0.27`$. The corresponding results for $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ and $`\alpha _0`$ are consistent with previous measurements.

Figure 6 (bottom) presents the combined results of simultaneous fits to $`1T`$ and $`C`$ of $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$, $`C_\mathrm{A}`$ and $`C_\mathrm{F}`$ with $`\alpha _0`$ fixed to previously measured value. Such fits with $`\alpha _0`$ as a free parameter turn out to be unstable mainly due to limited precision of the data. The results are $`C_\mathrm{A}=2.84\pm 0.24`$ and $`C_\mathrm{F}=1.29\pm 0.18`$ with a consistent value of $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})=0.119\pm 0.010`$ and consistent with the expectation from SU(3). Several other possible gauge groups are excluded.

## 5  SUMMARY

The analyses of power corrections discussed in section 3 show that it is possible to describe event shape distributions and mean values in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation data with combined pQCD and power correction predictions without the need for Monte Carlo based hadronisation corrections. Global fits of the combined theory with only $`\alpha _\mathrm{S}(M_\mathrm{Z})`$ and $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})`$ as free parameters to event shape data measured at $`\sqrt{s}=14`$ GeV up to the highest LEP 2 energies lead to a satisfactory agreement with the data. The non-perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0(2\mathrm{GeV})`$ is found to be universal, i.e. independent of the observable, within the expected theoretical uncertainty of about 20%.

A generalisation of the power correction analysis to also vary the QCD colour factors provides a measurement of the colour factors based on the QCD radiative corrections in the pQCD and the power correction predictions. The results for the colour factors are consistent with the expectations from SU(3) as the gauge group of QCD while the total uncertainties are competitive with analyses of angular correlations in 4-jet final states in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation.

One of the legacies of LEP, SLC and their predecessors TRISTAN, PETRA and PEP is the wealth of measurements using hadronic final states in $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ annihilation. These data made is possible to test and verify combined predictions for hard (pQCD) and soft (power corrections) processes. Based on these tests our understanding of the hard and soft processes and their interplay has improved significantly.

The author would like to take the opportunity to thank the organisers for a stimulating and entertaining meeting.


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# Comments on the experimental disproof of Multisimultaneity

(December 23, 2001)

## Abstract

The recent Geneva experiment strikingly displays *lawlike reversibility* together with *quantum nonseparability*. As in any probabilistic physics *correlation* expresses *interaction*, and as Born’s probability rules grafted upon de Broglie’s wave mechanics turn the probability scheme into the code of an information transmitting telegraph, the Lorentz and CPT invariant transition amplitude reversibly carries a zigzagging causation.

Stefanov’s et al.   valuable experiment exemplifies once again the counterintuitive phenomenology of non-separability inherent in the Born-Jordan wavelike probability calculus; it stems from the cross, interference, terms present in probability expressed as absolute-squared amplitude. Algebraic nonseparability entails geometric nonlocality; emphasis on its time aspect can be worded atemporality.

Lawlike reversibility versus factlike irreversibility   of cause, that is, elementary level law versus macroscopic fact, is crucial. The latter is mere jurisprudence ; to turn juris-prudence into law is a fatal mistake. Euler clarified mechanical law in terms of extremed action, and Bayes probabilistic law via reversal of conditionals.

Mechanical-and-probabilistic reversibility survives the Born-Jordan revolution ; it is expressed via the Hermitian reversibility $`\phi |\psi =\psi |\phi ^{}`$ of a transition amplitude. In an $`(x,ct)`$ picture the $`\phi \psi `$ exchange renders PT reversal, and conjugation the C exchange; so Hermitian reversibility renders CPT reversibility.

Quantum transitions are between representations  , which are not “realistic” but “Picasso style” due to complementarity. Prepared $`\phi |`$ and measured $`|\psi `$ (retropared says Hoekzema   representations are correlated by an N-uple transition amplitude pictured as a Feynman graph; turning upside down Stefanov’s et alii wording I state: “Lorentz-and-CPT invariance plus topological invariance of a correlation amplitude are primary traits inherent in the reversible causality concept making no difference between cause and effect”.

For example a photon transiting between two linear polarizers is neither in the prepared $`\phi |`$ nor in the measured $`|\psi `$ representation, but is reversibly transiting between them; a time extended interference exists between $`\phi |`$ and $`|\psi `$. The Geneva experiment   displays such a spacetime extended interferometry over a macroscopic interval.

The wavelike correlation between prepared (emitted, coded) and retropared (received, decoded) representations is reversibly carried as a signal via the network pictured as a Feynman’s graph. A concise derivation of the EPRB correlation formula (direct, inverse, or space-time transposed) is thus possible  .

Reciprocity of the twin faces, cognizance and organization, of information shows up in the reciprocal interventions of pre- and retro-paration; a questions-and-answers game between reality and representation is thus going on, where coding impresses organization and decoding expresses knowledge (reality precedes in decoding, realization follows in coding).

*Lawlike reversibility-but-factlike irreversibility*   is formalized as information-negentropy equivalence $`N/I=k\mathrm{log}2`$, with $`I`$ expressed in bits and $`N`$ in “practical” thermal units (say clausius); *law is expressed by the finiteness, fact by the smallness of $`k`$*. $`𝒩`$ denoting Avogadro’s number and $`R`$ the constant in the law of perfect gases $`pv=RT`$, one has $`k=R/𝒩`$ (incidentally one wonders why the classics did not set $`R=1`$ by definition of temperature read on a perfect gas thermometer). Anyhow $`k`$ is very small “because $`𝒩`$ is very big”; so knowledge is extremely cheap and organization expensive; said otherwise : “cognizance is normal and psychokinesis  ;   paranormal”. If $`k`$ were zero cognizance would be cost-free and free-will an illusion -a hypothesis that was implicit in the theory named “epiphenomenal consciousness”. Interestingly, Born’s wavelike probability scheme associates  ;   retarded or advanced causation with statistical pre- or retro-diction.

Postulating, as previously said, that probability together with information its alter ego are psycho-physical invalidates Jaynes   severance of “ontology and epistemology”; it identifies joint probability to reversible interaction. The quantum paradigm then likens the wavelike probability calculus to the code of an information transmitting telegraph.

I repeatedly said to Suarez that I could not buy his “multisimultaneity” hypothesis which, in his own   wording, is “conceptually foreign to both quantum mechanics and relativity”. So, once again a definite quantum prediction looked so incredible that an ad hoc counter proposal was elaborated, tested, and refuted, which of course is highly significant  .

Decoherence at reception (decoding, measurement) and the one imposed at emission (coding, preparation) is a calculation approximation yielding the specific “empirical reality”   selected by the experimental setup. A more subtle essence thus thrown out is the one reversibly telegraphed between preparing and measuring physicists.

Paraphrasing the cosigners   I deem *quantum correlation to be a basic concept synonymous to back and forth telegraphed information* (knowledge-and-organization) that is, *to zigzagging causation.*


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# Proof.

A Shorter, Simpler, Stronger Proof of the
Meshalkin–Hochberg–Hirsch Bounds
on Componentwise Antichains111Appeared in *Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A* 100 (2002), 196–199.

Matthias Beck and Thomas Zaslavsky222Research supported by National Science Foundation grant DMS-70729.

State University of New York at Binghamton
Binghamton, NY, U.S.A. 13902-6000

matthias@math.binghamton.edu
zaslav@math.binghamton.edu

Abstract: Meshalkin’s theorem states that a class of ordered $`p`$-partitions of an $`n`$-set has at most $`\mathrm{max}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{a_1,\mathrm{},a_p}\right)`$ members if for each $`k`$ the $`k^{\text{th}}`$ parts form an antichain. We give a new proof of this and the corresponding LYM inequality due to Hochberg and Hirsch, which is simpler and more general than previous proofs. It extends to a common generalization of Meshalkin’s theorem and Erdős’s theorem about $`r`$-chain-free set families.

*Keywords*: Sperner’s theorem, Meshalkin’s theorem, LYM inequality, antichain, $`r`$-family, $`r`$-chain-free, composition of a set.

*2000 Mathematics Subject Classification.* Primary 05D05; Secondary 06A07.

*Running head*: Meshalkin–Hochberg–Hirsch Bounds

*Address for editorial correspondence*:
Thomas Zaslavsky
Department of Mathematical Sciences
State University of New York
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
U.S.A.

An *antichain of sets* is a class of sets of which none contains another. Sperner  bounded the size of an antichain $`𝒜`$ of subsets of an $`n`$-element set $`S`$:

$$|𝒜|\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{n/2}\right),$$

with equality if $`𝒜=𝒫_{n/2}(S)`$ or $`𝒫_{n/2}(S)`$, where by $`𝒫_k(S)`$ we mean the class of $`k`$-element subsets of $`S`$. Subsequently, Lubell , Yamamoto , and Meshalkin  independently obtained a stronger result (of which Bollobás independently proved a generalization ): any antichain $`𝒜`$ satisfies

$$\underset{A𝒜}{}\frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|A|}\right)}1,$$

and equality holds if $`𝒜=𝒫_{n/2}(S)`$ or $`𝒫_{n/2}(S)`$.

We give a very short proof of a considerable generalization of these results. A class $`𝒜`$ of subsets of $`S`$ is *$`r`$-chain-free* if $`𝒜`$ contains no chain of length $`r`$.333An $`r`$-chain-free family has been called an “$`r`$-family” or “$`k`$-family”, depending on the name of the forbidden length, but we think it is time for a distinctive name. (A *chain* is a class of mutually comparable sets, that is, $`TT^{}\mathrm{}T^{(l)}`$. Its *length* is $`l`$.) A *weak composition of $`S`$ into $`p`$ parts* is an ordered $`p`$-tuple $`A=(A_1,\mathrm{},A_p)`$ such that the $`A_k`$ are pairwise disjoint subsets of $`S`$ and their union is $`S`$. We call $`A_k`$ the *$`k^{\text{th}}`$ part* of $`A`$. A part $`A_k`$ may be void (hence the word “weak”). If $`=\{A^1,\mathrm{},A^m\}`$ is a class of weak compositions of $`S`$ into $`p`$ parts, we write $`_k=\{A_k^i\}_{i=1}^m`$ for the class of distinct $`k^{\text{th}}`$ parts of members of $``$. A multinomial coefficient of the form $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{a_1,\mathrm{},a_p}\right)`$ is called a *$`p`$-multinomial coefficient for $`n`$*. Our result is:

Theorem. Let $`n0`$, $`r1`$, $`p2`$, and let $`S`$ be an $`n`$-element set. Suppose $``$ is a class of weak compositions of $`S`$ into $`p`$ parts such that, for each $`k<p`$, $`_k`$ is $`r`$-chain-free. Then

(a) $`{\displaystyle \underset{A}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|A_1|,\mathrm{},|A_p|}\right)}}r^{p1}`$, and

(b) $`||`$ is bounded by the sum of the $`r^{p1}`$ largest $`p`$-multinomial coefficients for $`n`$.

The number of $`p`$-multinomial coefficients for $`n`$ is $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+p1}{p1}\right)`$; if $`r^{p1}`$ exceeds this we extend the sequence of coefficients with zeros.

Our theorem is a common generalization of results of Meshalkin and Erdős. The case $`r=1`$ of part (b) (with the added assumption that every $`_k`$ is an antichain) is the relatively neglected theorem of Meshalkin ; later Hochberg and Hirsch  found (a) for this case, which implies (b). Our extension to $`r>1`$ is inspired by the case $`p=2`$, which is equivalent to Erdős’s theorem  that for an $`r`$-chain-free family $`𝒜`$ of subsets of $`S`$, $`|𝒜|`$ is bounded by the sum of the $`r`$ largest binomial coefficients $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{k}\right)`$, $`0kn`$, and its LYM companion due to Rota and Harper . We need the latter for our theorem; we sketch its proof for completeness’ sake.

Lemma \[7, p. 198, ()\]. For an $`r`$-chain-free family $`𝒜`$ of subsets of $`S`$,

$$\underset{A𝒜}{}\frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|A|}\right)}r.$$

###### Proof.

Each of the $`n!`$ maximal chains in $`𝒫(S)`$ contains at most $`r`$ members of $`𝒜`$. On the other hand, there are $`|A|!(n|A|)!`$ maximal chains containing $`A𝒫(S)`$. Now count:

$$\underset{A𝒜}{}|A|!(n|A|)!rn!.$$

The lemma follows. ∎

###### Proof of the theorem.

Our proof of our whole theorem is simpler than the original proofs of the case $`r=1`$. The proof of (a) here (which is different from the more complicated although equally short proof by Hochberg and Hirsch) is inspired by the beginning of Meshalkin’s proof of (b) for $`r=1`$. We proceed, as did Meshalkin, by induction on $`p`$. The case $`p=2`$ is equivalent to the lemma because if $`(A_1,A_2)`$ is a weak composition of $`S`$, then $`A_2=SA_1`$. Suppose then that $`p>2`$ and (a) is true for $`p1`$. Let $`(F)=\{(A_2,\mathrm{},A_p):(F,A_2,\mathrm{},A_p)\}`$. Since $`(F)_k_{k+1}`$, $`(F)_k`$ is $`r`$-chain-free for $`k<p1`$. Thus,

$`{\displaystyle \underset{A}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|A_1|,\mathrm{},|A_p|}\right)}}`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{A}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|A_1|}\right)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n|A_1|}{|A_2|,\mathrm{},|A_p|}\right)}}`$
$`={\displaystyle \underset{F_1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|F|}\right)}}{\displaystyle \underset{A^{}(F)}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n|F|}{|A_2|,\mathrm{},|A_p|}\right)}}`$
where $`A^{}=(A_2,\mathrm{},A_p)`$,
$`{\displaystyle \underset{F_1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{|F|}\right)}}r^{p2}`$
by the induction hypothesis,
$`rr^{p2}`$
by the lemma. This proves (a).

To deduce (b), write the $`p`$-multinomial coefficients for $`n`$ in any weakly decreasing order as $`M_1,M_2,\mathrm{}`$, extended by $`0`$’s as necessary to a sequence of length $`r^{p1}`$. In the left-hand side of (a), replace each of the $`M_1`$ terms with largest denominators by $`1/M_1`$. Their sum is now $`1`$. Amongst the remaining terms all denominators are at most $`M_2`$; replace the $`M_2`$ of them with the largest denominators by $`1/M_2`$. Now their sum is $`1`$. Continue in this fashion. The number of terms could be less than $`T=M_1+\mathrm{}+M_{r^{p1}}`$; in that case, $`||<T`$. Otherwise, after $`r^{p1}`$ steps we have replaced $`T`$ terms and have on the left side of (a) a sum equal to $`r^{p1}`$ plus any further terms. As the total is no more than $`r^{p1}`$, there cannot be more than $`T`$ terms. Thus we have proved (b). ∎

Our proof is naturally general: that of (a) would be no shorter even if restricted to $`r=1`$ (but the deduction of (b) would become trivial). What is more, it is applicable to projective geometries . Furthermore, our proof, even restricted to $`r=1`$, is simpler than the original proofs by Meshalkin and Hochberg–Hirsch.

The upper bounds in the theorem can be attained only in limited circumstances. When $`r=1`$, the maxima are attained if for each $`k`$, $`_k=𝒫_{n/p}(S)`$ or $`𝒫_{n/p}(S)`$ . When $`p=2`$, the upper bounds are attained if $`_1`$ is the union of the $`r`$ largest classes $`𝒫_m(S)`$ . When $`r>1`$ and $`p>2`$, the upper bounds are only sometimes attainable, but proving this is complicated.


text:
# The X-ray Spectrum of Supernova Remnant 1987A

## 1 Introduction

Supernova (SN) 1987A provided the astrophysical community with a wealth of information about core collapse supernova (see e.g., Arnett et al. 1989; McCray 1993). Now, as the object enters its remnant phase, it will reveal still more about the physics of the explosion and of the progenitor star’s history, as well as give insight into the processes occurring in other supernova remnants (SNR). The radiation from SNR 1987A is now dominated by the interaction of the SN debris with the circumstellar material (CSM) which was present before the star exploded. This interaction will convert the kinetic energy stored in the debris expansion into radiation which is observable from the radio to X-ray bands.

The circumstellar gas is most obvious in the triple ring system seen in optical wavelengths (Burrows et al., 1995) as it recombines following the initial ionizing flash from the SN (Lundqvist & Fransson, 1991). The mechanism responsible for forming these rings is still uncertain. In one model the system is a result of the self interaction of the progenitor star’s stellar winds (Luo & McCray, 1991; Wang & Mazzali, 1992; Blondin & Lundqvist, 1993). The appearance of both radio (Staveley-Smith et al., 1992, 1993) and X-ray (Beuermann, Brandt, & Pietsch, 1994; Gorenstein, Hughes, & Tucker, 1994; Hasinger, Aschenbach, & Trümper, 1996) emission from the remnant at day $`1000`$ suggests that the supernova blast wave encountered an H II region interior to the equatorial ring (Chevalier & Dwarkadas, 1995; Borkowski, Blondin, & McCray, 1997a). This H II region was probably formed by the evaporation of gas off of the ring by the blue supergiant progenitor star (Chevalier & Dwarkadas, 1995).

The hydrodynamics of the interaction is quite complex (Chevalier, Blondin, & Emmering, 1992; Borkowski, Blondin, & McCray, 1997b) and depends on the density distributions of the expanding debris and the CSM. In any case, a double shock structure forms which consists of a blast wave which travels outwards into the CSM and a reverse shock which travels back (in a Lagrangian sense) into the SN ejecta (see e.g., Chevalier 1982). This structure is shown schematically in Figure 1. Between these two shocks is a region of shocked circumstellar gas and a region of shocked ejecta gas, separated by a contact surface which is hydrodynamically unstable (Chevalier, Blondin, & Emmering, 1992).

Emission from the reverse shock has been observed as high velocity ($`\pm 12,000\text{ km s}^1`$) L$`\alpha `$ and H$`\alpha `$ emission (Michael et al., 1998) created as neutral hydrogen crosses the shock front. By modeling the line profiles Michael et al. (1998) found that emission from the reverse shock front is confined primarily to the equatorial plane ($`\pm 30^{}`$) and is located at $`75\%`$ of the distance from the SN to the inner surface of the equatorial ring. Images of SNR 1987A in radio bands (Gaensler et al., 1997; Manchester et al., 2001) show a toroidal geometry with an east-west brightness asymmetry. These images support the notion that the emission from the remnant is brightest in the equatorial regions. Manchester et al. (2001) also find that the radio image is expanding with a radial velocity of $`3500\text{ km s}^1`$. This radio emission is most likely synchrotron emission from nonthermal particles which are accelerated in the shocks. While it is uncertain where this emission originates, it is reasonable to assume that it comes from the approximate region between the blast wave and reverse shock. If so, the expansion speed of the radio remnant is a good approximation for the speed of the blast wave in the H II region.

Hydrodynamic models for the interaction of the SN 1987A’s blast wave with an equatorial H II region produce blast wave velocities of $`4100\text{ km s}^1`$ (Borkowski, Blondin, & McCray, 1997a), close to that inferred from the radio images. Such a shock can produce X-ray emitting plasma with electron temperatures of several keV. X-ray images taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (Chandra) were shell-like and confirmed that the emission was indeed from the shocks rather than emission from a central source (Burrows et al., 2000; Park et al., 2001). The X-ray spectrum is characterized by electron temperatures of $`3\text{ keV}`$. Park et al. (2001) showed that the hard band X-ray image ($`E=1.2`$$`8.0\text{ keV}`$) of the remnant looks very similar to the radio image, which suggests that the double shock structure is the source of emission in both bands. X-ray images from Chandra also suggested an expansion rate of $`5200\pm 2100\text{ km s}^1`$ (Park et al., 2001), consistent with the radio image expansion rate and the theoretical models.

One of the young remnant’s most exciting developments in the last several years has been the appearance in the optical and ultraviolet (UV) of several rapidly brightening unresolved spots on the equatorial ring (Lawrence et al., 2000; Michael et al., 2000). These spots appear where the blast wave has encountered dense ($`n>10^4\text{ cm}^3`$) obstacles on the inside of the optical ring. In these obstacles the blast wave has slowed considerably (to $`250\text{ km s}^1`$) and cooled sufficiently to emit copious UV and optical radiation (Pun et al., 2002). These radiative shocks are too slow to produce substantial X-ray emission. There may, however, be lower density obstacles near the optical spots into which shocks with speeds of $`500`$$`1000\text{ km s}^1`$ are transmitted. Such shocks would be copious producers of soft X-ray emission ($`E1\text{ keV}`$) but they would not produce significant amounts of optical or UV line emission. The soft band X-ray image ($`E=0.3`$$`0.8\text{ keV}`$) presented by Park et al. (2001) shows X-ray brightening at approximately the same locations as the optical spots, suggesting that intermediate velocity shocks are present in their vicinity.

Here we present and analyze in more detail two X-ray data sets obtained with Chandra: a high spectral resolution dispersed spectrum (obtained with the HETG grating) first shown in Burrows et al. (2000); and spatially resolved CCD spectra obtained from the high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) imaging observation presented by Park et al. (2001). We present the observations and reductions in §2. In §3 we present our shock models to describe the observed X-ray emission. In §4.1 we analyze the CCD spectrum to determine the overall shock parameters and their variations across the remnant. We also consider spectroscopic evidence for the existence of slow X-ray emitting shocks. In §4.2 we present the X-ray line fluxes obtained from the dispersed spectrum. These data confirm the results of the CCD spectral analysis and the legitimacy of the shock model for the emission. In §4.3 we present the combined X-ray line profile and compare it to simulated profiles in order to establish the speed of the blast wave. In §5 we discuss our findings and what they tell us about the remnant’s structure and development, as well as what we may learn from future investigations. We conclude in §6 with a summary of our results.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 Dispersed Spectrum

As a combined effort of 2 Guaranteed Time Observation programs, 120 ks of telescope time was allocated to obtain a high resolution dispersed X-ray spectrum of SNR 1987A with Chandra. On 1999 October 6 two observations (Obsid 124 & 1387) were made with the HETG grating and the ACIS-S detector ($`E/\mathrm{\Delta }E500`$ at 1 keV) with a net exposure time of $`116.1`$ ks. Here we work with the reprocessed (2000 September 1) data set. We screened photon events on energy (0.3 – 8 keV), grade (02346), and status (0). The lightcurve is free of background flares. We removed spurious ‘streaking’ on the S4 chip, greatly increasing the S/N of the spectrum while eliminating only a negligible amount of observing time ($`<0.05`$%). To further increase the S/N of the spectrum, we removed a region of high detector background on chip S1, affecting one arm of the MEG spectrum in the energy range $`E0.52`$$`0.56\text{ keV}`$. We added this region as well as additional bad columns and pixels removed by visual inspection of the data to the bad pixel file in order to properly account for their removal when creating effective area distributions (ARFs).

We established the position of the source from the centroid of the 0th order image. We resolved spectral orders and assigned wavelengths to photons in the spectra making use of the CIAO v2.0 procedures tg\_create\_mask and tg\_resolve\_events. The source is faint enough that only 1st orders of the HEG and MEG spectra have detectable signal. Based on the cross-dispersion width of the observed spectra we chose to extract the spectrum from regions along the dispersion directions $`3\mathrm{}`$ wide centered on the 0th order image. We use no aperture correction since the data do not show a statistically significant increase in source counts with a wider aperture. Choosing a wider aperture would yield an extracted spectrum with substantially decreased S/N owing to the required subtraction of a larger background emission component.

Because SNR 1987A is so faint in the X-ray band, we need to subtract the background signal carefully. The background consists of a diffuse background as well as structured background from other faint sources which overlap with the dispersed spectra. To characterize the local nature of this background, we use regions along the dispersion directions extending from $`5\mathrm{}`$ to $`20\mathrm{}`$ above and below the source regions. We chose these regions to be wide enough to contain enough counts to statistically represent the background, but narrow enough to represent its local structure. We combined and extracted the photons in these regions the same way as for the source spectrum.

To create effective area distributions for both the HEG and MEG spectra we used the CIAO script mkgarf\_acis, the updated bad pixel file, and the standard response matrices for the ACIS HETG spectra. Since both observations were performed with the same roll angle and pointing they have identical backgrounds and ARFs. Therefore we have combined the extracted spectra from both observations. We also combined positive and negative spectral orders (as well as their ARFs) for both the HEG and MEG spectra. We present the resulting fluxes in Table 1 and show the extracted spectrum in Figure 2. We display the combined (MEG and HEG $`\pm 1^{st}`$ orders) background subtracted count spectrum. While noisy, lines from H- and He-like ions of N, O, Ne, Mg and Si are easily identified.

### 2.2 CCD Spectra

On 2000 December 7 we obtained an observation of 99 ks (Obsid 1967) intended to provide a high spatial resolution, high S/N image of the X-ray remnant (Park et al., 2001). The image was obtained on the ACIS S3 chip ($`E/\mathrm{\Delta }E8`$ at 1 keV), without a spectral grating in the optical path. We processed this data set as in Park et al. (2001) to correct for the effects of charge transfer inefficiencies (CTI) (Townsley et al., 2000, 2001a) and to improve spatial resolution using a sub-pixelization technique (Tsunemi et al., 2001). We screened events on energy (0.3 – 8 keV), grade (02346), and status (0). The lightcurve is free of background flares. The pileup fraction is small ($`4`$%) and therefore may be ignored.

Figure 3 shows the X-ray image which contains $`9250`$ source counts. It confirms the findings of Park et al. (2001): the emission is annular, slightly elliptical, and is brighter in the east with enhancements at the approximate locations of optical Spots 1 – 5 (Lawrence et al., 2000). Also shown in Figure 3 is a ‘hardness’ image created by subtracting the 0.3 – 0.8 keV image from the 1.3 – 8.0 keV image.

Since absolute astrometric registration of the X-ray image with optical or radio counterparts has not been established at a level $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$, the exact location of the X-ray remnant’s center (i.e. the location of the SN) cannot be determined. We locate the center of the X-ray remnant in one of two ways. The best defined center is the centroid of the photon arrival locations. However, since the emission is highly asymmetric, there is no reason to expect this point to be coincident with the SN. Alternatively, we can locate the center by fitting an ellipse to the shape of the image. The center of this ellipse lies $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ west of the image centroid (see Fig. 3). In our analysis (§4.1) we use the image centroid since it is unambiguously defined. Fortunately, our spectroscopic results do not depend on which center is used. However, as we discuss in §5, the overall level of flux asymmetry between the western and eastern halves of the remnant depends greatly on the choice of center.

With an angular resolution of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$, the telescope allows us to distinguish the spectra of different regions of the remnant. In our preliminary analysis we tried many different apertures. Here we discuss only three sets of apertures. First, we take an aperture which contains the entire remnant. Second, we divide the remnant into eastern and western halves to investigate the clear asymmetry which is seen in the image. Finally, we split the remnant into the 6 regions shown in Figure 3. We choose the boundaries between these regions to match features seen in the ‘hardness’ image. The X-ray emission at the location of optical Spot 1 (at position angle $`30^{}`$) is much softer than that found in the rest of the remnant. We thus place region A in order to isolate the emission coming from the vicinity of Spot 1. Each of the 6 regions in Figure 3 contain between 1300 and 1700 counts, giving spectra with statistically acceptable numbers of counts.

We determine the background spectrum from a region defined by a circular annulus with inner radius of $`30\mathrm{}`$ and outer radius of $`100\mathrm{}`$ that is free of other sources. The background is small, with $`<2\%`$ of the counts in the source spectrum. We extracted the spectra using the CIAO command dmextract, created an ARF for the source using asp\_apply\_sim, asphist and mkarf, and utilized the response matrix which was created to properly account for the CTI correction (Townsley et al., 2001b).

## 3 Physical Picture

Figure 1 depicts a schematic of the remnant’s shock structures. In reality, the blast wave will vary in speed as it interacts with density gradients in the CSM, and reflected shocks will form where the gradients are steep enough. Therefore the hot plasma behind the shock will not be produced by a single steady-state shock wave. However, in the absence of detailed information about this density distribution, we cannot reasonably attempt to determine the full distribution of plasma as a function of temperature and ionization history in the remnant. Instead, we assume that plane parallel shock models will be an adequate first approximation to describe the emission from the remnant. Since the shell of shocked gas is expected to be thin ($`\mathrm{\Delta }R/R0.1`$) relative to the radius of the remnant the plane parallel approximation may be acceptable. We expect that the X-ray emission from the remnant will be dominated by shocked CSM rather than by shocked ejecta, since hydrodynamical models of the interaction (Borkowski, Blondin, & McCray, 1997a) show that the emission measure behind the blast wave is a factor of $`5`$ larger than that behind the reverse shock. Then, by fitting the data with single shock models, we attempt to determine the average plasma parameters behind the blast wave.

We also consider the hypothesis that the blast wave is interacting at some locations with denser gas associated with the equatorial ring. In this case a distribution of shocks with varying speeds and ages will be present. We represent this case with a simplified model consisting of two shock components, one representing the blast wave in the H II region and the other representing a slower shock transmitted into the ring.

The passing shock rapidly heats and compresses the pre-shock gas, causing atoms to be ionized and excited and to emit radiation. As gas moves downstream from the shock front it will undergo further ionization until it finally finds itself in ionization equilibrium. Given enough time, the gas may radiate away a substantial portion of its thermal energy and become a radiative shock. However, the shocks that produce the X-rays from SNR 1987A have not been present long enough for this to occur, and therefore will be non-radiative (or adiabatic) shocks. A simple non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) model will not accurately represent the emission from the shocked plasma because some gas will have passed through the shock only recently, while other gas will have passed through long before. Therefore, the emission comes from a collection of slabs of shocked gas each with their own NEI age. The ionization age ($`n_et`$) of the shock as a whole, which is the ionization age of the oldest parcel of shocked gas, is a crucial parameter in determining the emission from a shock. Shocks with lower values of $`n_et`$ are not able to produce plasma with higher ionization ages.

In addition to the ionization age, the temperature of the shocked plasma also affects the emission from the shock. For adiabatic shocks the shock temperature is given by $`T_s=3\overline{m}v_s^2/16k`$, where $`\overline{m}`$ is the mean mass per particle ($`\overline{m}0.7m_p`$ for fully ionized gas with abundances representative of the ring). The shocks in SNR 1987A are most likely collisionless shocks, where thermalization of the fluid’s bulk flow is mediated by turbulent magnetic fields. In such a shock each element will have a temperature given by $`T_i=3m_iv_s^2/16k`$. The electron temperature ($`T_e`$) can be orders of magnitude below the ion temperatures. While we assume that each species will thermalize its bulk motion (such that the thermal velocity distributions are Maxwellian), it is unclear whether different species will efficiently share thermal energy at the shock. Collisionless processes may be present which can partially heat the electrons at the shock front (e.g., Cargill & Papadopoulos 1988). However, based on observations of other fast shocks (Ghavamian et al., 2001), we expect that the electron temperature immediately behind the shock front will be less than the shock temperature ($`\beta =T_{e0}/T_s<1`$). Eventually Coulomb collisions in the post-shock flow will cause all species to equilibrate their temperatures. It is important to note that the emitted radiation will have an excitation temperature that is characterized by the electron temperature, not the ion or shock temperatures. If Coulomb collisions can cause significant heating in the post-shock plasma, the emission from a shock must be calculated by considering both the ionization and temperature history of the post-shock gas.

The X-ray spectral fitting package XSPEC v11 contains models which calculate the emission from such shocks (Borkowski, Lyerly, & Reynolds, 2001). The pshock models calculate non-equilibrium ionization and emission from a shock with constant post-shock electron temperature. The npshock models allow unequal electron and ion temperatures at the shock front, then calculate electron heating through Coulomb collisions in order to determine the proper distribution of post-shock electron temperature with which to compute the non-equilibrium ionization. We use these two shock models in our analysis of the observed X-ray emission.

We expect that the observed X-ray emission will come primarily from the blast wave, which travels $`3500\text{ km s}^1`$ ($`T_s17\text{ keV}`$) into H II region gas with atomic density of $`100\text{ cm}^3`$ (Chevalier & Dwarkadas, 1995; Lundqvist, 1999). If the blast wave has encountered the ring, with density $`10^4\text{ cm}^3`$, shocks of velocity 300 – $`1000\text{ km s}^1`$ ($`T_s0.1`$$`1.4\text{ keV}`$) would be transmitted (see Pun et al. 2002). Figure 4 depicts ion and electron temperature equilibration through Coulomb collisions behind these two representative shocks for two different initial electron temperatures. In the H II region, having density of $`100\text{ cm}^3`$, the faster shock will take $`10^3`$ years to reach temperature equilibration. However, in the slower shock entering the dense ring the electron and ion temperatures will equilibrate in less than a few months.

In fact, both of these shocks can be approximated fairly well by constant electron temperature models. Since the first interaction with the H II region came at day $`1000`$, the blast wave should have an ionization age of $`5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s. Therefore, even in the case where no electron heating occurs at the shock front, most of the plasma ($`90\%`$ by volume) has nearly constant (within a factor of 2) electron temperature. Because of its much larger ionization age ($`10^{13}`$ cm-3 s), a slower shock would be in a regime where most of its emission comes after temperature equilibration has occurred. So, in view of the fact that the pshock models are much faster to calculate, for most of our fits we have assumed that constant electron temperature models are adequate to describe the actual post-shock temperature structure in these shocks. We will confirm this assumption for the faster shock in §5 using the npshock models.

## 4 Analysis

### 4.1 CCD Spectra

The superb spatial resolution of Chandra ($`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$) and the quality ($`9250`$ source counts) of the CCD data allow us to perform spatially resolved spectroscopy of the remnant. We analyze the spectrum of the ($`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2\times 1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$) X-ray remnant in three stages of increasing spatial detail. First, we consider the spectrum of the entire remnant. Then we analyze the spectra of the eastern and western halves. Finally, we analyze the spectra from the six regions defined in §2.2. For each stage of our analysis we use the XSPEC package and vary the binning used in our fits: a minimum of 100 counts/bin for the spectrum of the entire remnant, 50 counts/bin for the spectra of the remnant’s halves, and 16 counts/bin for the six regions. With these binnings, each spectrum has a similar number ($`70`$) of spectral bins.

As described in §3, the hydrodynamics of the interaction of the SN ejecta with the CSM is probably complex. It would be naive for us to hope to discriminate all its possible details by analyzing the X-ray spectra. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to assume that shock physics is responsible for the emission, so we make use of various shock models in order to fit the observed X-ray spectra. As an approximation to the actual situation, we fit the data with two-shock models in which the faster shock represents the interaction of the blast wave with the H II region gas, while the slower shock represents the interaction with considerably denser gas, such as that found in the ring.

In order to infer the overall chemical abundances and the interstellar/circumstellar X-ray absorption column density, we first analyze the spectrum of the entire remnant, assuming that the abundances are uniform throughout the remnant. The portion of the spectrum with good statistics ($`E0.5`$$`4\text{ keV}`$) is sensitive only to the following abundances: N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe. We allow these abundances to vary, while fixing the abundances of He and C at values (2.57 and 0.09 respectively) found for the circumstellar ring (Lundqvist & Fransson, 1996), and Ca and Ni at values (0.34 and 0.62 respectively) representative of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) (Russell & Dopita, 1992). Unless otherwise specified, in this paper we present abundance values with respect to their Solar values (Anders & Grevesse, 1989). Once we derive the X-ray absorption column density and chemical abundances from the fit to the spectrum of the entire remnant, we adopt these values for the analyses of the spectra of the different regions.

Table 2 presents the results from single shock fits to the spectra of the whole remnant (Figure 5) and to the eastern and western halves. For these fits, the vpshock model was used with the velocity shift of SN 1987A ($`v_{shift}=287\text{ km s}^1`$; Meaburn, Bryce, & Holloway 1995). For our fits, we used LMC abundances (Hughes, Hayashi, & Koyama, 1998; Russell & Dopita, 1992) for the absorption since most of the neutral gas along the line of sight towards SN 1987A is in the LMC (Fitzpatrick & Walborn, 1990). We find a neutral hydrogen absorbing column of $`n_H=2.5\times 10^{21}\text{ cm}^2`$, close to that found from analysis of the damped Hydrogen L$`\alpha `$ absorption wings of nearby stars (Fitzpatrick & Walborn, 1990; Scuderi et al., 1996). If we adopt Solar abundances for the neutral component, our fits require a smaller value for the column density ($`n_H=1.9\times 10^{21}\text{ cm}^2`$), while the other shock parameters remain within the ranges given in Table 2. Correcting for interstellar absorption and assuming a distance of 50 kpc to the remnant, we calculate an X-ray luminosity (in the 0.5 – 2.0 keV band) of $`1.0\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1. This is $`10\%`$ larger than the luminosity found by Park et al. (2001) due to the lower value for $`n_H`$ that they obtained. The elemental abundances derived from the single vpshock model fit to the X-ray spectrum of the entire remnant are (with 90% confidence errors): N = $`0.41_{0.19}^{+0.29}`$; O = $`0.07_{0.02}^{+0.03}`$; Ne = $`0.12_{0.05}^{+0.06}`$; Mg = $`0.11\pm 0.06`$; Si = $`0.30_{0.09}^{+0.10}`$; S = $`0.38_{0.28}^{+0.30}`$; Fe = $`0.11_{0.04}^{+0.07}`$.

When we split the remnant into two halves and fit the spectra with single shock models, we find that the western half of SNR 1987A appears to require slightly hotter plasma than the eastern half. This result could imply either that the blast wave in the western half is faster or that there is an additional component of cooler gas present in the east. Due to the presence of the optical spots on the ring, as the associated soft X-ray spots (Park et al., 2001), we explore the later interpretation by considering models which contain two shock components.

The two-shock models improve the quality of the fits to the X-ray spectrum of the entire remnant as well as to the eastern half (with $`\chi _\nu ^21`$). The derived absorption column density and abundances (assumed the same for both shock components) as well as the parameters of the faster shock (temperature and ionization age) are almost identical to those derived from the single shock models. The second shock component has an electron temperature of $`0.4\text{ keV}`$ ($`v_s500\text{ km s}^1`$) and an ionization age two orders of magnitude greater than that of the faster shock. This result is consistent with our picture where the slower shock is a result of the blast wave partially interacting with a much denser gas.

The bright optical spots are primarily located on the eastern half of the remnant. Perhaps the observed brightness asymmetry in the X-ray image is related to this fact. To test whether slow X-ray emitting shocks associated with the optical spots could be responsible for the observed X-ray asymmetry we construct the following model. We assume the fast shock component has the same parameters in the east and in the west, while an additional component (a slow shock) is present only in the eastern half. This model gives a very good fit to the X-ray spectra of both halves (Figure 5), with $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.05`$ $`(\nu =70)`$ and $`0.91`$ $`(\nu =63)`$ for the eastern and western halves, respectively. The blast wave has $`T_e=2.7\pm 0.2\text{ keV}`$ and $`n_et=(6.5\pm 0.5)\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s, while the slower shock in the eastern half has $`T_e=0.4\pm 0.1\text{ keV}`$ and $`n_et10^{13}`$ cm-3 s. We find that the slow shock component accounts for $`7\pm 2\%`$ of the flux (0.3 – 6 keV) in the eastern half. As we discuss in §5, at this level, a slow shock component cannot account for all of the observed flux asymmetry.

Finally, the spectra from the six regions shown in Figure 3 allow us to study the variations of the shock parameters on a smaller scale. To do so, we fit a single shock model to the X-ray spectrum of each of these regions (Figure 6). The limited photon statistics at this spatial resolution do not permit us to make significant inferences from two-shock models. All of these six ‘local’ shocks share the same abundances and X-ray absorption (both derived from the entire remnant spectrum). The results of these fits indicate that, while the ionization times are very similar ($`n_et6\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s), the inferred post-shock temperatures vary around the remnant (see Table 3). The general behavior of this variation confirms that the western half of the remnant is hotter than the eastern half. We note that region A, which contains Spot 1, the brightest optical spot, has a significantly lower temperature than the rest of the remnant. This is a clear indication in the X-ray band that the blast wave is interacting with denser gas at that location. This behavior is not seen in the spectrum of region C, however, which also contains several bright optical spots. This may be due to the presence of bright hard X-ray emission from the blast wave in region C (Park et al., 2001) which could overwhelm the softer emission produced by the less developed optical spots. Alternatively, this may indicate that the spots in region C are reacting differently in the X-ray than Spot 1.

### 4.2 Dispersed Spectrum

Individual emission lines are hard to identify in the undispersed CCD spectrum due to its low spectral resolution. The dispersed spectrum, however, allows us to identify and measure the fluxes in the brightest lines independently of any model. In principle, the ratios of the fluxes of various individual lines offer powerful diagnostics of the emitting plasma. Unfortunately, the low count rate in the dispersed spectrum limits our ability to exploit this advantage. We can only use the observed line fluxes to confirm our analysis above, showing that the observed line strengths are indeed consistent with those predicted by shock models.

From the dispersed spectrum we extract the fluxes of 9 lines labeled in Figure 2. Most of these lines are clearly apparent in the spectrum, while a couple of the lines (the Si lines) are predicted by the shock models to be bright. Measurements of upper limits to the fluxes in these lines therefore provide additional constraints to the shock models. No other bright lines ($`>8`$ counts) are identified in the 0.3 – $`6.0\text{ keV}`$ energy range.

Given the poor counting statistics of the lines, we cannot accurately measure their fluxes by fitting them with Gaussian profiles. Instead, we integrate the fluxes within a given velocity range of line center. As we discuss in §4.3, most of the emission in a line is contained within $`\pm 5000\text{ km s}^1`$ of line center. Therefore, these limits are used to extract the fluxes in the L$`\alpha `$ lines. With the present spectrum we are unable to isolate the individual components of the K$`\alpha `$ triplet lines. For the shock parameter range established above we suspect small, but perhaps significant, contributions from the forbidden components of the triplets. Therefore, for the K$`\alpha `$ lines we integrate the flux between $`5000\text{ km s}^1`$ and $`v_{forb}+5000\text{ km s}^1`$ from the resonance line, where $`v_{forb}`$ is the velocity offset of the forbidden component from the resonance line (4000 – $`7000\text{ km s}^1`$ for the observed lines). From the fluxes extracted from these ranges, we subtract a background ‘continuum’ level (either real continuum or underlying emission from other faint lines) determined from regions extending $`7500\text{ km s}^1`$ beyond the extraction velocity range. Our results are shown in Table 4. The tabulated errors include both statistical and systematic errors in the flux measurements. We estimate systematic errors introduced in the ‘continuum’ subtraction by unidentified lines by simulating our technique on model spectra. We find 7 lines with S/N $`3`$, but only upper limits to the fluxes of O VII K$`\alpha `$ and Si XIV L$`\alpha `$.

Since we observe both L$`\alpha `$ and K$`\alpha `$ lines for O, Ne, Mg, and Si, we can test whether the shock models can accurately reproduce their flux ratios. Since abundances are always in question when fitting spectra, these abundance-insensitive line ratios offer a test of the underlying shock emission models. We use the XSPEC pshock model to calculate the theoretical line fluxes, assuming interstellar absorption in the LMC with $`n_H=2.5\times 10^{21}\text{ cm}^2`$. Figure 7 shows the regions of $`(T_e,n_et)`$ phase space that are permitted by the observed ratio of L$`\alpha `$ to K$`\alpha `$ flux for each element. All of the observed ratios define a similar region of phase space. While the Ne and Mg regions are confined by the limits set by O and Si, they do not overlap with each other within $`1\sigma `$ errors (however, they are consistent at the $`2\sigma `$ level). This discrepancy is not too surprising since there is clearly a distribution of shocks present. The ions that form the Mg lines are formed at higher temperatures than those that produce the observed Ne emission, and therefore can represent emission from hotter plasma.

The best fit model to all the line strengths has a $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.28`$ $`(\nu =2)`$. Since the data set is limited to 9 lines, the model is poorly constrained when we fit for the abundances (N, O, Ne, Mg, and Si) as well as temperature and ionization age. The shaded region in Figure 7 shows the 90% confidence region for $`T_e`$ and $`n_et`$. The parameters found in the CCD analysis fall within this confidence region — that shock model can reproduce the line fluxes seen in the dispersed spectrum. We find abundances, though not well constrained, which are consistent with those determined through analysis of the CCD spectrum. In particular, the presence of the bright N VII L$`\alpha `$ line requires that the gas be nitrogen enriched (N/O $`0.7`$ by number).

If we fit models to the entire dispersed spectrum , we can constrain the shock model more tightly due to the added information provided by the continuum and the absence of higher energy lines in the spectrum. Since the MEG and HEG spectra have different responses, we fit them simultaneously within XSPEC. In order to obtain an acceptable S/N per bin, we re-bin the spectra so that each bin has at least 10 counts (yielding 57 and 23 bins for the MEG and HEG spectra respectively). This procedure degrades the fine resolution of the grating observations somewhat, but the resolution is still good ($`2000\text{ km s}^1`$) where the lines are brightest.

Since we expect a blast wave velocity of $`4000\text{ km s}^1`$ we expect similar widths in the line profiles (see §4.3). Therefore we smooth the shock model with a Gaussian profile (gsmooth) with the velocity width a free parameter in the fit. Using the abundances and absorbing column determined in §4.1 we fit the spectra using the vpshock model with the velocity shift of SN 1987A. The best fit has $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.01`$ $`(\nu =76)`$ with $`T_e=2.9\pm 0.4\text{ keV}`$ and $`n_et=(5\pm 1)\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s, similar parameters to those found from the CCD spectrum. The fact that the grating spectrum was taken $`1`$ year earlier than the CCD spectra ($`10\%`$ of the shock age) might explain why a marginally lower ionization age is required for this spectrum. The lines have full width at half maximum (FWHM) of $`3300\pm 3000\text{ km s}^1`$. Although not required by the data, a two-shock model fit, with $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.06`$ $`(\nu =72)`$, has an additional soft component ($`T_e0.3\text{ keV}`$) which contributes $`<10\%`$ of the total flux.

### 4.3 Line Profile

The high resolution grating spectrum provides us access to the X-ray line profiles at a detector resolution of $`700\text{ km s}^1`$. Unfortunately, the individual lines observed each have too few counts to make reasonable tests of their profiles. Therefore we create a combined line profile by adding together several of the brightest lines. For this analysis we include the N VII L$`\alpha `$, O VIII L$`\alpha `$, Ne IX K$`\alpha `$, Ne X L$`\alpha `$, Mg XI K$`\alpha `$, Mg XII L$`\alpha `$, and Si XIII K$`\alpha `$ lines. The combined line profile is shown in Figure 8. This profile has decent statistics — it contains $`180`$ counts spread over $`10,000\text{ km s}^1`$, so we can obtain an average S/N per bin of $`3`$ with $`600\text{ km s}^1`$ bins.

It is acceptable to include the K$`\alpha `$ triplet lines in the combined profile since, for the parameter range we have established for the emitting plasma, we expect the contribution to the profile from the forbidden components of these lines to be small ($`7\%`$). As a confirmation, there is no evidence of a bulge in the profile at 4000 – 7000 $`\text{ km s}^1`$, where the contributions from the forbidden components would be largest. We calculate that the contamination of the profile by other lines falling within $`\pm 5,000\text{ km s}^1`$ of the included lines (mostly Fe emission near the Ne lines) is small ($`15\%`$) for the typical shock conditions present.

A glance at the profile shows it is centrally concentrated with FWHM of $`5000\text{ km s}^1`$ and centroid at $`500\text{ km s}^1`$ (note that SN 1987A has a relative velocity of $`287\text{ km s}^1`$). We fit the profile with functions consisting of a constant background plus one or two Gaussian components ($`e^{(vv_{shift})^2/2\mathrm{\Delta }v^2}`$). We have performed these fits with various bin sizes (300 – 1000 $`\text{ km s}^1`$) to test the stability of our results. Since the width of the profile may be comparable the size of the velocity bins, the Gaussian profiles are properly integrated over the bin limits. We find that the $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ statistic remains acceptable for these fits but its value wanders as a function of bin size ($`\chi _\nu ^2.8`$$`1`$). The fitted parameters remain steady within the limits of their errors. Neither the single nor double Gaussian fits are statistically superior, we have included the double Gaussian fit to test for the presence of a narrow component to the line profile. The resulting fits are shown in Figure 8 and the fit parameters are tabulated in Table 5.

The fitted velocity widths, $`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$, are degraded due to the finite image size of the remnant. The remnant’s emission extends nearly $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ along the dispersion direction. The combined profile is dominated by Ne and Mg emission lines near $`1.2\text{ keV}`$. At the dispersion of the MEG the spatial extent of the remnant accounts for $`900\text{ km s}^1`$ at $`1.2\text{ keV}`$. For the broad Gaussian component this effect is small enough to ignore. If a narrow component is present, it would be unresolved. Though poorly constrained, its possible presence supports the idea that slow shocks ($`1000\text{ km s}^1`$) associated with the optical spots may be responsible for some of the X-ray emission from the remnant.

There are two astrophysical broadening mechanisms acting on the line profile: thermal broadening and broadening due to bulk fluid motions. Since both of these motions are induced by the passage of the blast wave, their magnitudes are dependent on its velocity. Therefore we may use the measured velocity widths to constrain the speed of the blast wave.

Assuming that the ions have Maxwellian velocity distributions, the thermal widths of the emission lines are given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_{therm,i}=\sqrt{kT_i/m_i}`$, where $`T_i`$ is the ion temperature and $`m_i`$ is the mass of the ion. The ion temperatures depend on the degree of equilibration occurring behind the shock front, by either collisional or collisionless processes. In the case of no temperature equilibration, the thermal widths would be independent of ion mass and would be given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_{therm}=\sqrt{3/16}v_s`$. However, if temperature equilibration has occurred, the widths would be reduced by a factor as large as $`\sqrt{\overline{m}/m_i}`$.

Since the line profile contains emission from the entire remnant, we observe emission from fluid elements traveling in many directions with bulk speeds comparable to the blast wave’s speed. The precise distribution of emission as a function of line-of-sight Doppler velocity depends on the hydrodynamics and kinetics of the blast wave’s interaction with the surrounding material. However, we can create simplified models for the bulk motion profile based on geometric models for the blast wave. Figure 9 shows the three models we consider: emission from a spherical shell of gas expanding radially with constant velocity, emission confined to the equatorial region of an expanding spherical shell, and a cylindrical shell expanding with constant velocity parallel to the equatorial plane. The equatorial geometries are chosen to mimic the observed geometry of the reverse shock, which has a latitudinal extent of $`\pm 30^{}`$. The line profiles that result from these geometries are also shown in Figure 9. For the equilibrated thermal widths, we have assumed $`m_i=22m_p`$, representative of Ne and Mg. In the limit of no temperature equilibration the thermal widths are comparable to the bulk widths and the resulting line profiles more closely resemble Gaussians.

For the profiles smoothed with the unequilibrated thermal width we find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=0.77v_s`$ for the spherical model and $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=0.74v_s`$ for the equatorial models. If thermal equilibration is complete then the simulated profiles are narrower, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=0.63v_s`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }v0.5v_s`$ for the spherical and equatorial models respectively. Using these relations we calculate from the measured widths given in Table 5 that $`v_s`$ falls in the range 2500 – $`6500\text{ km s}^1`$. However, for the ionization age determined from fits to the dispersed spectrum ($`n_et5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s) the shocked plasma should not have had time to substantially equilibrate its ion temperatures (see Figure 4). This idea is supported by the fact that the profile is well fit by a Gaussian, and does not show structure like that seen in the equilibrated model profiles. Moreover, we favor the equatorial geometries for the blast wave emission. Using these model parameters, and a velocity width representative of the broad Gaussian component ($`\mathrm{\Delta }v=2500\pm 500\text{ km s}^1`$), we infer that $`v_s=3400\pm 700\text{ km s}^1`$. This velocity is consistent with those obtained by measuring the expansion of the radio and X-ray images and that predicted by hydrodynamic theory.

## 5 Discussion

The blast wave velocity implied by the width of the X-ray line profile indicates that the shock temperature should be $`17\text{ keV}`$. This is much higher than the electron temperature measured in our fits to the X-ray spectra ($`T_e2.5\text{ keV}`$). Though not surprising given the discussion in §3, this result is direct observational evidence of the existence of unequal electron and ion temperatures behind a fast shock ($`\beta =T_{e0}/T_s<1`$). Up to now we have used models in which the post-shock electron temperature is constant. In order to confirm the validity of this assumption, and to constrain the amount of electron heating at the shock front itself, we make use of the npshock models which account for the equilibration of electron and ion temperatures through Coulomb collisions. We fit the CCD spectrum of the entire remnant with the abundances and interstellar absorption given in §4.1.

Since line excitation is caused primarily by collisions with electrons, the X-ray spectrum is insensitive to the ion temperatures, and thus to the shock speed. Therefore the parameter $`T_s`$ (and thus $`\beta `$) is poorly constrained by our spectral analysis. With this in mind, we perform various fits each having a fixed value of $`\beta `$, fitting for the initial electron temperature $`T_{e0}`$ and ionization age. Fits with $`\beta =0.05,0.1`$, and $`0.2`$ give results of comparable statistical significance ($`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 1.13, 1.05, and 1.07, with $`\nu =69`$) with initial electron temperatures of $`1.6,1.7`$, and $`2.0\text{ keV}`$ respectively, and ionization ages of $`5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s. Note that all of the fitted initial electron temperatures are lower than the value ($`2.5\text{ keV}`$) found in the constant electron temperature fits. This is true because the temperature determined in the pshock model fit represents the mean electron temperature of the plasma. An npshock model fit with a lower value for $`\beta `$ has a higher shock temperature, thus a faster heating rate, and so requires a lower initial electron temperature in order to produce a plasma with the same mean electron temperature. That all of the $`\beta `$ model fits have similar $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ values indicates that the spectrum is most sensitive to the mean electron temperature and less so to the actual temperature distribution. This is primarily due to the fact that the electron temperature remains nearly constant over the volume behind the shock (it varies by at most a factor of $`2`$ in the $`\beta =0.05`$ model). This result supports our use of the constant electron temperature models as representative models in our analysis in §4.

The CCD spectrum alone cannot constrain the value of $`\beta `$ since it is insensitive to the shock temperature. However, we note that the $`\beta =0.1`$ model seems the most realistic since its shock temperature, $`T_s=17.3\text{ keV}`$, is very close to what is expected from a shock with velocity of $`3500\text{ km s}^1`$. Indeed we can use the shock velocity results of §4.3 and fix the shock temperature at $`16.5\text{ keV}`$ in order to constrain $`\beta `$. For this fit we find a good fit, $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.04`$ $`(\nu =70)`$ with $`T_{e0}=1.8_{0.1}^{+0.4}\text{ keV}`$ or $`\beta =0.11_{0.01}^{+0.02}`$. It is worth mentioning that models where $`T_{e0}`$ is fixed at a very low value (as would be the case if no collisionless electron heating occurred at the shock front) are not consistent with the data. This amount of equilibration for a $`3500\text{ km s}^1`$ shock is consistent with the results of Ghavamian et al. (2001), who found that $`\beta `$ decreases with increasing shock strength. However, the observed electron temperature is not low enough to imply that particle acceleration has taken a significant amount of energy from the plasma, as found in the blast wave of 1E 0102.2-7219 (Hughes, Rakowski, & Decourchelle, 2000).

The X-ray image (as well as images of the radio source) show a noticeable brightness asymmetry between the eastern and western halves of the remnant. Our analysis in §4.1 quantified the X-ray brightness asymmetry as the eastern half having 15% more flux (in the 0.3 – 6 keV band) than the western half. However, this result is based on our choice of the image centroid as the center of the X-ray image. Clearly the level of flux asymmetry depends on this choice. To explore the possible extent of the asymmetry, we performed a similar spectral analysis with the center defined from an ellipse which was fit to the shape of the X-ray image (see Figure 3). In this case the asymmetry between the X-ray fluxes of the eastern and the western halves increases to $`50\%`$. We fit one- and two-shock models to the spectra in a similar manner as described in §4.1 and find similar physical parameters at about the same statistical significance. Unfortunately, absolute X-ray astrometry was not possible with our data so we are unable to precisely constrain the level of asymmetry any better than 15 – 50%.

The presence of slower X-ray emitting shocks where the blast wave has struck the inner ring (representing $`<5\%`$ of the total X-ray flux) cannot account for the observed level of flux asymmetry. Therefore, this asymmetry must be due primarily to a global asymmetry in the interaction of the SN blast wave with the circumstellar environment. The blast wave must be interacting with denser material in the east. The luminosity of the shocked plasma is approximately proportional to $`n_0^2T_s^{0.6}V`$, where $`n_0`$ is the pre-shock density, $`V(v_s)`$ is the volume of shocked gas, and $`T_s(v_s^2)`$ is the shock temperature. Since $`v_sn_0^{1/2}`$, the luminosity goes as $`n_0^{2.1}`$. Whatever level of brightness asymmetry that exists is a good estimate of the differences in pre-shock density that the blast wave is encountering.

The blast wave could be encountering denser material in the east either because the CSM is asymmetric or because the SN explosion is asymmetric. If the SN explosion (and therefore the expanding debris) was symmetric then the CSM must have greater density toward the east then toward the west. In this case the blast wave would propagate more slowly toward the east than toward the west. If, on the other hand, the CSM is symmetric, the blast wave must have propagated further toward the east to encounter the denser gas closer to the equatorial ring. For this to occur, the driving pressure of the SN ejecta must be greater in the east than in the west, indicating an asymmetric SN explosion. It seems reasonable that the SN occurred at the center of the ring, in which case the appearance of the optical spots primarily in the east favors the latter hypothesis. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm this hypothesis with the present X-ray data, which lacks sufficiently accurate astrometric registration with respect to the SN or the optical ring. This is not a trivial task due to the scarcity of X-ray point sources in the vicinity of SN 1987A. However, accurate X-ray astrometry would yield powerful scientific rewards. Short of this, the location of the reverse shock is a good proxy for the location of the blast wave and may provide the best constraints on the cause of the observed asymmetry (Michael et al. 2002, in preparation).

Many young SNR have been observed to contain nonthermal X-ray emission (e.g., Allen, Gotthelf, & Petre 1999). From an analysis of XMM-Newton data Aschenbach et al. (2001) have suggested that the spectrum of SNR 1987A includes such a component. We explore this possibility with the Chandra CCD spectrum by considering a composite model consisting of a single shock and a power-law component. Our best fit, with $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.06`$ $`(\nu =60)`$, is not statistically superior (based on the F-test) to our previous models. The photon index of the power-law emission is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.2\pm 0.3`$. The shock has $`T_e=1.4\pm 0.2\text{ keV}`$, $`n_et10^{11}`$ cm-3 s, and has abundances which are greater by factors of $`2`$ – 3 compared to the values derived previously. The observed X-ray flux/luminosity of the power-law component is about 57% of the total in the 0.3 – 6 keV range and $`75\%`$ in the 1.4 – 8 keV range. The upper limit to a possible point source of X-ray emission in SNR 1987A is $`13\%`$ in the 2 – 10 keV band (Park et al., 2001). Therefore, an embedded pulsar or its wind nebula cannot be responsible for such a nonthermal component. On the other hand, the fast shocks themselves might produce X-ray synchrotron radiation if they could accelerate electrons to sufficiently high energies. In the case of the most efficient diffusive shock acceleration of particles (e.g., Jokipii 1987), when the shock front is parallel to the magnetic field, we estimate that a magnetic field of strength $`3\times 10^4`$ G must be present in order for the shocks to accelerate electrons to sufficiently high energies within the age of the remnant.

With the success of the shock models at fitting the Chandra spectra, we find that a power-law component is not required by the data. Moreover, the abundances required for such a fit seem unreasonably high. However, the present spectra do not contain significant flux above a few keV and therefore the presence of a hard power-law tail can not be ruled out.

The possible presence of a narrow component to the X-ray line profile is intriguing although at present this result is not very statistically significant. Confirmation of a narrow component would support the existence of X-ray emission from lower velocity shocks entering the ring. As the remnant gets brighter and the blast wave penetrates more of the ring, the X-rays produced by the slower shocks will contribute an increasing percentage of the total X-ray luminosity (Borkowski, Blondin, & McCray, 1997b). One manifestation of this will be a growing narrow component in the line profile. Moreover, since the efficiency of a shock at producing a given line depends on its velocity, different lines are likely to have significantly different profiles. For example the Si XIII K$`\alpha `$ and Si XIV L$`\alpha `$ lines are formed only in the faster shocks while the O VIII L$`\alpha `$ line will have a significant contribution from slower shocks. Thus we would expect the Si lines to appear broader. Detection of differences in the line profiles will help resolve the different shock components present in the remnant.

The overall spectrum will also change as slower shocks begin to dominate, adding a softer emission component. The structure of SNR 1987A and its emission is changing significantly on a time scale of less than a year, therefore much can be learned about the development of the remnant and its shocks through continued observations of the remnant in the X-ray band.

## 6 Summary

In conclusion, we summarize our findings:

* The X-ray spectrum (including the resolved line fluxes) is well represented by an adiabatic, plane parallel shock model with mean electron temperature of $`2.6\text{ keV}`$ and ionization age of $`6\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s. We find elemental abundances that are subsolar ($`0.2`$), with an enhanced nitrogen abundance (N/O $`0.8`$ by number).
* There are indications that a second shock component (with $`T_e0.4\text{ keV}`$ and $`n_et10^{13}`$ cm-3 s) is present in the eastern half of the remnant. This slower shock component (with $`v_s500\text{ km s}^1`$) may be related to the shocks ($`v_s250\text{ km s}^1`$) that produce the optical spots on the equatorial ring. Currently, the slow shock can account for only $`4\%`$ of the total X-ray emission from the remnant.
* By investigating simulated profiles based on simple models for the blast wave’s geometry, we infer from the observed X-ray line profile that the blast wave has a velocity of $`3400\pm 700\text{ km s}^1`$. Future observations of X-ray line profiles should show different widths for different lines and increasing flux in a narrow component.
* The measured electron temperature in the spectra and the width of the line profile provide direct evidence for incomplete electron-ion temperature equilibration behind the blast wave. Assuming the shock temperature indicated by the line profile, we measure the level of collisionless electron heating at the shock front at $`T_{e0}/T_s=0.11_{0.01}^{+0.02}`$.
* We constrain the level of east-west brightness asymmetry at 15 – 50%. This asymmetry is caused by the blast wave interacting with denser material in the east. A better constraint will only be possible if a more precise astrometric registration of the location of the SN is undertaken for the X-ray image. Such a registration will also help determine if the source of the asymmetry is an asymmetric circumstellar environment or an asymmetric SN explosion.
* Continued observations in the X-ray band of this rapidly brightening and changing remnant will help us better understand SN 1987A, its circumstellar environment, and their interaction.

We would like to thank Kazik Borkowski for his help and expertise with the shock models we used for this analysis. This work was supported by NASA through grants NAG5-3313 and NTG5-80.