The gamma-ray pulsar PSR1706-44 and its associated SNR

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Gamma Rays, Pulsars, Stellar Evolution, Supernova Remnants, Radio Astronomy, Radio Sources (Astronomy), Sky Surveys (Astronomy), Stellar Luminosity, Stellar Structure

Scientific paper

The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope discovered a faint supernova remnant associated with PSR 1706-44, one of only four gamma-ray pulsars. (Vela, the Crab and PSR 1509-58 also have an associated SNR.) The gamma-ray source was first discovered as 2CG342-02, the tenth strongest of 25 COS-B gamma-ray sources cataloged (Swanenburg et al., 1981, Astrophys. J. Lett. 243, L69). Low-resolution surveys show an extended (approximately 40 min x 25 min) source in the region with flux of approximately 25 Jy, suggesting a plerionic SNR (e.g. Jonas, de Jager and Baart, 1985, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl., 62, 105). A search for the gamma-ray source at 843 MHz with a resolution of 44 arcsec revealed a shell-type SNR--a half-ellipse with axes approximately 44 min x 32 min and low brightness of approximately 9 mJy per beam, giving Sigma843 = 3 x 10-21W m-2 Hz/sr (McAdam, Osborne and Parkinson, 1993, Nature, 361, 516). The Sigma-D relation suggests a diameter D approximately 34 pc at a distance of approximately 3 kpc in the Norma spiral arm of the Galaxy. It has a young (Sedov expansion) age of approximately 6000 years. The key linking the SNR and the gamma-ray source came (Kniffen et al., 1992, IAU Circ. 5485) when the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite detected pulsed gamma-radiation (Thompson et al., 1992, Nature, 359, 615) from the newly-discovered PSR 1706-44 (Johnston et al., 1992, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 255, 401). The pulsar position (epoch 1950) at RA = 17 hour 06 min 05.1 sec, delta = -44 deg 25 min 15.0 sec coincides in the MOST image with a 21 mJy source on the SE and of the SNR shell. The pulsar has a period of 102 ms and slows with characteristic age 17300 years. For it to move 18 min from centre to rim of the SNR shell in this time implies a proper motion of 0.06 sec/yr which is sufficiently large to check with VLBI astrometry. At the pusar dispersion distance (1.8 kpc), or the SNR distance of 3 kpc, the pulsar has apparently moved 10 or 16 pc at a transverse velocity of 540 or 900 km/s.

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