Investigating Chromium, Manganese, Calcium and Nickel Abundances in SN1604

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the abundance distribution of specific elements throughout the volume Kepler's SNR, using an extensive dataset from the Chandra observatory archive. Manganese and chromium were used to determine an estimate of the metallicity parameter that characterized the progenitor star by way of the free neutron flux released after the explosion. The resulting value, Z = 0.082 ± 0.061/0.047, placed the progenitor into the solar or supersolar metallicity categories. Furthermore, abundances of calcium and nickel were computed in key regions of the remnant. Higher calcium concentrations were identified at higher radii, as a result of the environment's enrichment with alpha particles from cosmic rays. For the determination of nickel abundances, an additional dataset was employed, taken from the XMM-Newton archive.