Energetics and Birth Rates of Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Understand

Published X-ray emission properties for a sample of 50 supernova remnants (SNRs) in the LMC are used as input for SNR evolution modelling calculations.

• The forward shock emission is modelled to obtain the initial explosion energy, age, and circumstellar medium density for each SNR in the sample.
• The resulting age distribution yields a SNR birthrate of 1/(500 yr) for the LMC.
• The explosion energy distribution is well fit by a log-normal distribution, with most-probable explosion energy of $0.5\times10^{51}$erg, with a 1-$\sigma$ dispersion by factor 3 in energy.