Molecules and dust in Cassiopeia A

Abstract

Aims: We study the chemistry of the Type IIb supernova ejecta that led to the Cas A supernova remnant to assess the chemical type and quantity of dust that forms and evolves in the remnant phase. We later model a dense oxygen-rich ejecta knot that is crossed by the reverse shock in Cas A to study the evolution of the clump gas phase and the possibility to reform dust clusters in the post-reverse shock gas. Methods: A chemical network including all processes efficient at high gas temperatures and densities is considered. The formation of key bimolecular species (CO, SiO) and dust clusters is described. Stiff, coupled, ordinary, differential equations are solved for the conditions pertaining to both the SN ejecta and the post-reverse shock gas. Results: We find that the ejecta of Type IIb SNe are unable to form large amounts of molecules and dust clusters as opposed to their Type II-P counterparts because of their diffuse ejecta. The gas density needs to be increased by several orders of magnitude to allow the formation of dust clusters. We show that the chemical composition of the dust clusters changes drastically and gains in chemical complexity with increasing gas density. Hence, the ejecta of the Cas A supernova progenitor must have been in the form of dense clumps to account for the dust chemical composition and masses inferred from infrared observations of Cas A. We show that the ejecta molecules in a clump that is processed by the reverse shock reform in the post-reverse shock gas with lower abundances than those of the initial ejecta clump, except SiO. These molecules include CO, SiS and O2. Dust clusters are destroyed by the reverse shock and do not reform in the post-reverse shock gas, even for the highest gas density. These results indicate that the synthesis of dust grains from the gas phase in the dense knots of Cas A and in other supernova remnants is unlikely.