High spatial resolution spectroscopy of Tycho's SNR with Chandra

We present high spatial resolution X-ray spectroscopy of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) using observational data from Chandra. The whole remnant was divided into $26\times 27$ regions, with each of them covering ${20}^{\prime \prime }\times {20}^{\prime \prime }$. We selected 536 pixels with enough events to generate spectra and fit them with an absorbed two component non-equilibrium ionization model. We obtained maps of absorbing column density, weight-averaged temperature, ionization age and abundances for O, Ne, Mg, Si, S and Fe, with emission used to determine the weight. The abundance maps and the finding that Fe abundance is not correlated with any other element suggest that Fe is located at a smaller radius than other elements, supporting the onion shell model with emission from more massive elements peaking more toward the center. A tight correlation between Si and S abundances support both Si and S coming from explosive O-burning and/or incomplete Si-burning. O and Ne abundances show no correlation with any other element. Considering that O, Ne and Mg are all synthesized in the same process (C/Ne-burning), we suggest that O/Ne/Mg might mix well with other elements during the explosion of the supernova and the expansion of the SNR. (paper)