Spatially Resolved Chandra Spectroscopy of the Large Magellanic Cloud
  Supernova Remnant N132D
  We perform detailed spectroscopy of the X-ray brightest supernova remnant
(SNR) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), N132D, using Chandra archival
observations. By analyzing the spectra of the entire well-defined rim, we
determine the mean abundances for O, Ne, Mg, Si, S and Fe for the local LMC
environment. We find evidence of enhanced O on the north-western and S on the
north-eastern blast wave. By analyzing spectra interior to the remnant, we
confirm the presence of a Si-rich relatively hot plasma (> 1.5 kev) that is
also responsible for the Fe K emission. Chandra images show that the Fe K
emission is distributed throughout the interior of the southern half of the
remnant but does not extend out to the blast wave. We estimate the progenitor
mass to be $15\pm5\,M_{\odot}$ using abundance ratios in different regions that
collectively cover a large fraction of the remnant, as well as from the radius
of the forward shock compared with models of an explosion in a cavity created
by stellar winds. We fit ionizing and recombining plasma models to the Fe K
emission and find that the current data cannot distinguish between the two,
hence the origin of the high-temperature plasma remains uncertain. Our analysis
is consistent with N132D being the result of a core-collapse supernova in a
cavity created by its intermediate mass progenitor.
