Chandra Legacy Observation of the LMC SNR N132D: Spatial Distribution of the Intermediate Mass Elements and Fe

We present results from a deep (900 ks) observation of the Large Magellanic Cloud supernova remnant N132D with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. N132D is an O-rich supernova remnant (SNR) of a 15-25 Mdot progenitor and is the most X-ray luminous SNR in the Local Group (L_x~1.0x10³⁸ ergs/s [0.3-10.0 keV]). The Chandra images reveal the spatial distribution of the elements Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe in unprecedented detail. The spatial distributions of Ne, Mg, Si, and S are in general similar on large spatial scales but differ significantly on small spatial scales. The distribution of Fe is dramatically different from the lower Z elements with a centrally-concentrated morphology spread across the southern half of the remnant. We use these band images to identify features that have significantly different abundances than the average abundances in the remnant. We present spectral results on some interesting regions such as the so-called “runaway knot” which is associated with high velocity optical ejecta, a central region that appears to be interacting with a molecular cloud, and a bright feature in the “void” region in the southwestern part of the remnant. The spectral parameters are used to determine if the emission in the regions is dominated by ejecta or swept-up interstellar material.