Line fluorescence from the ring around supernova 1987A

Abstract

Observations in lambda 5007 which reveal an ellipse of line emission around SN 1987A are reviewed. A simple expression for the rate at which the kinematically accessible paraboloid sweeps over the length of a thin uniform circular ring is derived, and a simple integral expression for the light curve F(t) of a fluorescent line in terms of epsilon(t), the local line emissivity, is presented. Many simple examples of the relationship between epsilon(t) and F(t) are graphed, and the results are used to deduce the characteristics of the local emissivity functions which produce the best fit to the observed semiforbidden N III 1750 and N V 1240 light curves. The N III and N V light curves are inverted to find the functions epsilon(t) which give best fits to the observations.