Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Metal-enriched Supernova Ejecta in Cassiopeia A

The supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) provides a unique opportunity to observe the fine details of the explosion of core-collapse supernova (SN). Previous optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations of Cas A have shown that the spatial distribution of the metal-enriched SN ejecta is very complicated, indicating that the SN explosion should have been asymmetric and turbulent, especially near the core. Recently, we obtained a long-exposure (~10 hr) image of Cas A by using the UKIRT 3.6-m telescope with a narrow-band filter centered at [Fe II] 1.644 um emission. This 'deep [Fe II] image' provides an unprecedented panoramic view of Cas A, revealing the distribution of dense SN ejecta over the entire remnant. We have carried out NIR multi-object spectroscopic observations of the dense ejecta knots in the northeastern (NE) and eastern (E) outer regions of the remnant using the MMIRS attached on the MMT 6.5-m telescope. A total of 67 ejecta knots are detected. By analyzing their spectra, we have found that the knots in the NE area show strong [S II]/[S III] and [Fe II] lines but little or no [P II] line, while those in the E outer region show strong [Fe II] lines but weak [S II]/[S III] lines. In this talk, we present the preliminary results of our NIR spectroscopic observations and discuss the implications.