New continuum and polarization observations of the Cygnus Loop with FAST

We report on the continuum and polarization observations of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant (SNR) conducted by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). FAST observations provide high angular resolution and high sensitivity images of the SNR, which will help to disentangle its nature. We obtained Stokes I, Q and U maps over the frequency range of 1.03 - 1.46 GHz split into channels of 7.63 kHz. The original angular resolution is in the range of ~3 arcmin - ~3.8 arcmin, and we combined all the data at a common resolution of 4 arcmin. The temperature scale of the total intensity and the spectral index from the in-band temperature-temperature plot are consistent with previous observations, which validates the data calibration and map-making procedures. The rms sensitivity for the band-averaged total-intensity map is about 20 mK in brightness temperature, which is at the level of confusion limit. For the first time, we apply rotation measure (RM) synthesis to the Cygnus Loop to obtain the polarization intensity and RM maps. The rms sensitivity for polarization is about 5 mK, far below the total-intensity confusion limit. We also obtained RMs of eight extra-galactic sources, and demonstrate that the wide-band frequency coverage helps to overcome the ambiguity of RM determinations.

Radio properties of the optically identified supernova remnant G107.0+9.0

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.