New X-ray lights on the supernova remnant population of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Supernova remnants (SNRs) mark the end point of stellar evolution. They return nucleosynthesis products to the interstellar medium (ISM), enriching and mixing it with freshly-produced heavy elements. Studying SNRs in general, and their X-ray emission in particular, is crucial to advance our understanding of many important astrophysical processes. With an XMM-Newton Very Large Programme (PI: F. Haberl), we conducted an X-ray survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). As opposed to the Milky Way, the LMC offers an ideal target, at a well-constrained distance with small absorption column densities. Thus, X-ray properties of the evolved end of the SNR population of a galaxy can be studied. I will present the characteristics of the newly X-ray-discovered SNRs, with emphasis on the discovery of several iron-rich SNRs, which are the most evolved remnants of type Ia (i.e. thermonuclear) supernovae. I will take advantage of the high level of completeness of our sample of SNRs to i) present the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of LMC SNRs, extended towards lowerluminosity objects, comparing it to the XLF of SNRs in other galaxies; and ii) compare the spatial distribution of SNRs and star formation histories in the LMC