Near-infrared Extinction due to Cool Supernova Dust in Cassiopeia A

We present the results of extinction measurements toward the main ejecta shell of the Cassiopeia A supernova (SN) remnant using the flux ratios between the two near-infrared (NIR) [Fe II] lines at 1.26 and $1.64{\mu}m$. We find a clear correlation between the NIR extinction (E(J-H)) and the radial velocity of ejecta knots, showing that redshifted knots are systematically more obscured than blueshifted ones. This internal "self-extinction" strongly indicates that a large amount of SN dust resides inside and around the main ejecta shell. At one location in the southern part of the shell, we measure E(J-H) by the SN dust of $0.23{\pm}0.05mag$. By analyzing the spectral energy distribution of thermal dust emission at that location, we show that there are warm (~100K) and cool (~40K) SN dust components and that the latter is responsible for the observed E(J-H). We investigate the possible grain species and size of each component and find that the warm SN dust needs to be silicate grains such as $MgSiO_3$, $Mg_2SiO_4$, and $SiO_2$, whereas the cool dust could be either small (${\leq}0.01{\mu}m$) Fe or large (${\geq}0.01{\mu}m$) Si grains. We suggest that the warm and cool dust components in Cassiopeia A represent grain species produced in diffuse SN ejecta and in dense ejecta clumps, respectively.