Recently, a master’s student ZHANG Zhen supervised by Professor YAN Wenming from the pulsar research group of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) to search for pulsars in five supernova remnants and found a new pulsar potentially associated with one of the supernova remnants G29.6+0.1.

The relevant paper has been published in Chinese Physics Letters (CPL 2024, 41 (2): 029701) and selected as "Editors' Suggestion".

Searching for radio pulsars in supernova remnants is crucial for studying the formation of pulsars and the mechanisms of supernova explosions. In the standard evolutionary model, pulsars are neutron stars formed in the supernova explosion of intermediate-mass stars. At present, less than one-third of the 383 known supernova remnants have been confirmed to be associated with pulsars. 

In this study, researchers analyzed the high-sensitivity observational data from  FAST using the PRESTO software. They discovered a new pulsar, PSR J1845–0306, with a spin period of P = 983.6 ms and a dispersion measure of DM = 444.6 ± 2.0 cmˉ³ pc, in the direction of the supernova remnant G29.6+0.1. The distance to the pulsar was estimated using the YMW16 electron density model. 

The results suggested that this pulsar is possibly associated with the supernova remnant (Due to their proximity, the pulsar may have been born from the supernova explosion). The association between them needs to be further confirmed by follow-up observations to determine key parameters of the pulsar, such as age and proper motion. 

Search results for the pulsar PSR J1845-0306

Contact: ZHANG Zhen

Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences

E-mail: zhangzhen@xao.ac.cn

Article link: 10.1088/0256-307X/41/2/029701