No Arabic abstract
Supernovae are the dominant source of chemical enrichment of galaxies, and they are an important source of energy to heat the interstellar medium and accelerate cosmic rays. Our knowledge of supernovae in the Milky Way is based mostly on the study of Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs), providing an (incomplete) record to supernova activity over the last ~100,000 yr. Here we report on an investigation of the spatial distribution of Galactic SNRs. Given the limited number of SNRs it is common to assume a functional form for the Galactocentric distribution of SNRs. However, several functional forms have been used in the past, without much justification for the radial distribution. For example, one often used functional form implies that no supernova activity is present in the Galactic Centre region. However, the presence of a magnetar and a SNR near the Galactic Centre suggest that a spatial distribution with zero SNRs at the Galactic Centre is not realistic. In light of these concerns we reevaluate the Galactic SNR distribution. We provide a brief outline of the main detection biases in finding SNRs and we investigate whether or not the use of the most common functional form is justified and how it compares to other models for the SNR distribution. We do this by analysing the longitudinal distribution of SNRs. We find that a simple exponential distribution is the most consistent and simplest model for describing the radial SNR distribution in the Galaxy and draw comparisons with the massive star formation and metallicity distributions.
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are widely considered to be sites of Galactic cosmic ray (CR) acceleration. Vela is one of the nearest Galactic composite SNRs to Earth accompanied by the Vela pulsar and its pulsar wind nebula (PWN) Vela X. The Vela SNR is one of the most studied remnants and it benefits from precise estimates of various physical parameters such as distance and age. Therefore, it is a perfect object for a detailed study of physical processes in SNRs. The Vela SNR expands into the highly inhomogeneous cloudy interstellar medium (ISM) and its dynamics is determined by the heating and evaporation of ISM clouds. It features an asymmetrical X-ray morphology which is explained by the expansion into two media with different densities. This could occur if the progenitor of the Vela SNR exploded close to the edge of the stellar wind bubble of the nearby Wolf-Rayet star $gamma^2$Velorum and hence one part of the remnant expands into the bubble. The interaction of the ejecta and the main shock of the remnant with ISM clouds causes formation of secondary shocks at which additional particle acceleration takes place. This may lead to the close to uniform distribution of relativistic particles inside the remnant. We calculate the synchrotron radio emission within the framework of the new hydrodynamical model which assumes the supernova explosion at the edge of the stellar wind bubble. The simulated radio emission agrees well with both the total radio flux from the remnant and the complicated radio morphology of the source.
We present a radio polarization study of the supernova remnant CTB 80 based on images at 1420 MHz from the Canadian Galactic plane survey, at 2695 MHz from the Effelsberg survey of the Galactic plane, and at 4800 MHz from the Sino-German 6cm polarization survey of the Galactic plane. We obtained a rotation measure (RM) map using polarization angles at 2695 MHz and 4800 MHz as the polarization percentages are similar at these two frequencies. RM exhibits a transition from positive values to negative values along one of the shells hosting the pulsar PSR B1951+32 and its pulsar wind nebula. The reason for the change of sign remains unclear. We identified a partial shell structure, which is bright in polarized intensity but weak in total intensity. This structure could be part of CTB 80 or part of a new supernova remnant unrelated to CTB 80.
The vast majority of Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) were detected by their synchrotron radio emission. Recently, the evolved SNR G107.0+9.0 with a diameter of about 3~deg or 75~pc up to 100~pc in size was optically detected with an indication of faint associated radio emission. This SNR requires a detailed radio study. We aim to search for radio emission from SNR G107.0+9.0 by analysing new data from the Effelsberg 100-m and the Urumqi 25-m radio telescopes in addition to available radio surveys. Radio SNRs outside of the Galactic plane, where confusion is rare, must be very faint if they have not been identified so far. Guided by the H$alpha$ emission of G107.0+9.0, we separated its radio emission from the Galactic large-scale emission. Radio emission from SNR G107.0+9.0 is detected between 22~MHz and 4.8~GHz with a steep non-thermal spectrum, which confirms G107.0+9.0 as an SNR. Its surface brightness is among the lowest known for Galactic SNRs. Polarised emission is clearly detected at 1.4~GHz but is fainter at 4.8~GHz. We interpret the polarised emission as being caused by a Faraday screen associated with G107.0+9.0 and its surroundings. Its ordered magnetic field along the line of sight is below 1~$mu$G. At 4.8~GHz, we identified a depolarised filament along the western periphery of G107.0+9.0 with a magnetic field strength along the line of sight $B{_{||}} sim 15~mu$G, which requires magnetic field compression. G107.0+9.0 adds to the currently small number of known, evolved, large-diameter, low-surface-brightness Galactic SNRs. We have shown that such objects can be successfully extracted from radio-continuum surveys despite the dominating large-scale diffuse Galactic emission.
We report the discovery of a remnant radio AGN J1615+5452 in the field of ELAIS-N1. GMRT continuum observations at 150, 325 and 610 MHz combined with archival data from the 1.4 GHz NVSS survey were used to derive the radio spectrum of the source. At a redshift $z sim$ 0.33, J1615+5452 has a linear size of $sim$ 100 kpc and spectral indices ranging between $alpha^{1400}_{610} < -1.5$ and $alpha^{325}_{150} = -0.61 pm 0.12$. While the source has a diffuse radio emission at low frequencies, we do not find evidence of core, jets or hotspots in the 1.4,GHz VLA data of $sim 5$ arcsec angular resolution. Such morphological properties coupled with a curved radio spectrum suggest that the AGN fueling mechanisms undergo a shortage of energy supply which is typical of a dying radio AGN. This is consistent with the observed steep curvature in the spectrum $Deltaalpha approx -1$, the estimated synchrotron age of $t_{rm s}=76.0^{+7.4}_{-8.7}$ Myr and a $t_{rm off}/t_{rm s}$ ratio of $sim 0.3$.
We simulate the evolutions of the stellar wind and the supernova remnant (SNR) originating from a runaway massive star in an uniform Galactic environment based on the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics models. Taking the stellar wind into consideration, we can explain the radio morphologies of many supernova remnants. The directions of the kinematic velocity of the progenitor, the magnetic field and the line of sight are the most important factors influencing the morphologies. If the velocity is perpendicular to the magnetic field, the simulation will give us two different unilateral SNRs and a bilateral symmetric SNR. If the velocity is parallel to the magnetic field, we can obtain a bilateral asymmetric SNR and a quasi-circular SNR. Our simulations show the stellar wind plays a key role in the radio evolution of a SNR, which implies the Galactic global density and magnetic field distribution play a secondary role in shaping a SNR.