Supernova remnant S 147 and its associated neutron star(s)

¹ Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, PO Box 586, 34100 Trieste, Italy e-mail: vgvaram@sai.msu.ru
² Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetskij Pr. 13, Moscow 119992, Russia
³ Center for Plasma Astrohysics, E. K. Kharadze Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory, A. Kazbegi ave. 2-a, Tbilisi 0160, Georgia

Received: 27 August 2005
Accepted: 26 March 2006

Abstract

The supernova remnant S 147 harbors the pulsar PSR J 0538+2817 whose characteristic age is more than an order of magnitude greater than the kinematic age of the system (inferred from the angular offset of the pulsar from the geometric center of the supernova remnant and the pulsar proper motion). To reconcile this discrepancy we propose that PSR J 0538+2817 could be the stellar remnant of the first supernova explosion in a massive binary system and therefore could be as old as its characteristic age. Our proposal implies that S 147 is the diffuse remnant of the second supernova explosion (that disrupted the binary system) and that a much younger second neutron star (not necessarily manifesting itself as a radio pulsar) should be associated with S 147. We use the existing observational data on the system to suggest that the progenitor of the supernova that formed S 147 was a Wolf-Rayet star (so that the supernova explosion occurred within a wind bubble surrounded by a massive shell) and to constrain the parameters of the binary system. We also restrict the magnitude and direction of the kick velocity received by the young neutron star at birth and find that the kick vector should not strongly deviate from the orbital plane of the binary system.