2026ApJ...998..220B

An excess emission has been observed by Spitzer in the 3-5 μm range of the SNR 1987A spectrum. It is generally argued that this excess could be due to the presence of warm amorphous carbon dust in the equatorial ring around the supernova, but the proposed models all have problems. This prompted us to present an alternative view on the interpretation of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of SNR 1987A from the near-IR wavelengths to the radio frequencies (from 3 μm up to 1.4 GHz), between 6000 and 8000 days after outburst. We argue that the origin of that excess could be attributed instead to a free-free emission. We show that under very specific conditions (the free-free is self-absorbed at a cutoff frequency imposed by the mass of the emitting region), it could be produced by collisional heating of the gas. We then discuss the time evolution of the various components of the SED. We establish a linear relationship between the growth of the warm carbon dust mass and that of the silicates dust during the analyzed period. Finally, we build the Spitzer light curves, and we show that our models reproduce the observations pretty well, although our study clearly favors the free-free case. In conclusion, we argue that the free-free model provides a formally very good description of the data; however, the model does require some very specific parameter choices, and results in an unusually low temperature for the ionized gas.