Constraints on the kinematics of the Ti ejecta of Cassiopeia A from INTEGRAL/SPI

¹ Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR), 9 avenue colonel Roche, BP44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France e-mail: martinp@mpe.mpg.de
² Université de Toulouse (UPS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 5187, France
³ Astronomical Institute, University Utrecht, PO Box 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
⁴ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot, DAPNIA/Sap, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵ Laboratoire APC, CNRS-UMR 7164-Université Paris Diderot, 10 rue A. Domon et L. Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France

Received: 6 March 2008
Accepted: 3 April 2009

Abstract

Context. The medium-lived ⁴⁴Ti isotope is synthesised by explosive Si-burning in core-collapse supernovae. It is extremely sensitive to the dynamics of the explosion and therefore can be used to indirectly probe the explosion scenario. The young supernova remnant Cassiopeia A is to date the only source of gamma-ray lines from ⁴⁴Ti decay. The emission flux has been measured by CGRO/COMPTEL, BeppoSAX/PDS and INTEGRAL/IBIS.

Aims. The high-resolution spectrometer SPI on-board the INTEGRAL satellite can provide spectrometric information about the emission. The line profiles reflect the kinematics of the ⁴⁴Ti in Cassiopeia A and can thus place constraints on its nucleosynthesis and potentially on the associated explosion process.

Methods. Using 4 years of data from INTEGRAL/SPI, we have searched for the gamma-ray signatures from the decay of the ⁴⁴Ti isotope. The overwhelming instrumental background noise required an accurate modelling and a solid assessment of the systematic errors in the analysis.

Results. Due to the strong variability of the instrumental background noise, it has not been possible to extract the two lines at 67.9 and 78.4 keV. Regarding the high-energy line at 1157.0 keV, no significant signal is seen in the 1140–1170 keV band, thereby suggesting that the line signal from Cassiopeia A is broadened by the Doppler effect. From our spectrum, we derive a ~500 km s^-1 lower limit at 2σ on the expansion velocity of the ⁴⁴Ti ejecta.

Conclusions. Our result does not allow us to constrain the location of ⁴⁴Ti since the velocities involved throughout the remnant, derived from optical and X-ray studies, are all far above our lower limit.