Chandraandxmm-Newtonstudy of the Supernova Remnant Kes 73 Hosting the Magnetar 1e 1841-045

We present a Chandra and XMM-Newton study of the supernova remnant (SNR) Kes 73 hosting the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1841−045. The Chandra image reveals clumpy structures across the remnant with enhanced emission along the western rim. The X-ray emission fills the radio shell and spatially correlates with the infrared image. The global X-ray spectrum is described by a two-component thermal model with a column density N H = 2.6 10 22 cm −2 and a total luminosity of L X = 3.3 10 37 erg s −1 (0.5–10 keV, at an assumed distance of 8.5 kpc). The soft component is characterized by a temperature kT s = 0.5 keV, a high ionization timescale, and enhanced Si and S abundances, suggesting emission that is dominated by shocked ejecta. The hard component has a temperature kT h = 1.6 keV, a relatively low ionization timescale, and mostly solar abundances suggesting emission that is dominated by interstellar/circumstellar shocked material. A spatially resolved spectroscopy study reveals no significant variations in the spectral properties. We infer an SNR age ranging between 750 yr and 2100 yr, an explosion energy of 3.0 10 50 erg and a shock velocity of (1.2 ± 0.3) × 10 3 km s −1 (under the Sedov phase assumption). We also discuss the possible scenario for Kes 73 expanding into the late red-supergiant wind phase of its massive progenitor. Comparing the inferred metal abundances to core-collapse nucleosynthesis model yields, we estimate a progenitor mass ≳20 M ☉ , adding a candidate to the growing list of highly magnetized neutron stars proposed to be associated with very massive progenitors.