Is HESS J1912+101 Associated with an Old Supernova Remnant?

Journal Article · Thu Aug 10 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/AA7F2A· OSTI ID:22663276

Su, Yang; Zhou, Xin; Yang, Ji; Chen, Xuepeng; Gong, Yan; Zhang, Shaobo ^[1]; Chen, Yang ^[2]

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1. Purple Mountain Observatory and Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2. Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023 (China)

HESS J1912+101 is a shell-like TeV source that has no clear counterpart in multiwavelength. Using CO and H i data, we reveal that V {sub LSR} ∼ +60 km s{sup −1} molecular clouds (MCs), together with shocked molecular gas and high-velocity neutral atomic shells, are concentrated toward HESS J1912+101. The prominent wing profiles up to V {sub LSR} ∼ +80 km s{sup −1} seen in {sup 12}CO ( J = 1–0 and J = 3–2) data, as well as the high-velocity expanding H i shells up to V {sub LSR} ∼ +100 km s{sup −1}, exhibit striking redshifted-broadening relative to the quiescent gas. These features provide compelling evidences for large-scale perturbation in the region. We argue that the shocked MCs and the high-velocity H i shells may originate from an old supernova remnant (SNR). The distance to the SNR is estimated to be ∼4.1 kpc based on the H i self-absorption method, which leads to a physical radius of 29.0 pc for the ∼(0.7–2.0) × 10{sup 5} years old remnant with an expansion velocity of ≳40 km s{sup −1}. The +60 km s{sup −1} MCs and the disturbed gas are indeed found to coincide with the bright TeV emission, supporting the physical association between them. Naturally, the shell-like TeV emission comes from the decay of neutral pions produced by interactions between the accelerated hadrons from the SNR and the surrounding high-density molecular gas.

• OSTI ID: 22663276
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 845; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CARBON
CARBON MONOXIDE
CLOUDS
COSMIC GASES
DECAY
DENSITY
DISTURBANCES
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
EMISSION
EXPANSION
HYDROGEN
INTERACTIONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
RED SHIFT
SELF-ABSORPTION
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
TEV RANGE
VELOCITY