PSR B 1706-44 and the SNR G 343.1-2.3 as the remnants of a cavity supernova explosion

¹ Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
² Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetskij Pr. 13, Moscow, 119992, Russia
³ E.K.Kharadze Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, Georgian Academy of Sciences, A.Kazbegi ave. 2-a, Tbilisi, 380060, Georgia
⁴ Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, PO Box 586, 34100 Trieste, Italy

Corresponding authors: D. C.-J. Bock, dbock@astro.berkeley.edu vgvaram@sai.msu.ru

Received: 11 April 2002
Accepted: 1 August 2002

Abstract

The possible association of the supernova remnant (SNR) G 343.1-2.3 with the pulsar PSR B 1706-44 (superposed on the arclike “shell" of the SNR) has been questioned by some authors on the basis of an inconsistency between the implied and measured (scintillation) transverse velocities of the pulsar, the absence of any apparent interaction between the pulsar and the SNR's “shell”, and some other indirect arguments. We suggest, however, that this association could be real if both objects are the remnants of a supernova (SN) which exploded within a mushroom-like cavity (created by the SN progenitor wind breaking out of the parent molecular cloud). This suggestion implies that the actual shape of the SNR's shell is similar to that of the well-known SNR VRO 42.05.01 and that the observed bright arc corresponds to the “half” of the SNR located inside the cloud. We report the discovery in archival radio data of an extended ragged radio arc to the southeast of the bright arc which we interpret as the “half” of the SN blast wave expanding in the intercloud medium.