The Quick and the Dead: Finding the Surviving Binary Companions of Galactic Supernovae with Gaia
Abstract
We use Gaia Data Release 2 to search for possible surviving binary companions to three of the best-studied historical Milky Way core-collapse supernovae. Consistent with previous work, we find there to be no plausible binary companion to either the Crab or Cas A supernovae. For the first time, we present a systematic search for a former companion to the Vela supernova, and rule out essentially any surviving luminous (>L ☉) companion. Based on parallax and proper motion, we identify a faint source (Star A; Gaia Source ID 5521955992667891584) that is kinematically consistent with being a former binary companion to the Vela SN progenitor. However, the inferred absolute magnitude of this source is extremely faint, raising the possibility that it may in fact be a background interloper. In addition, we derive a new distance ({3.37}-0.97+4.04 kpc) to the Crab SN based on the Gaia parallax measurements, which is significantly further than the 2 kpc distance typically adopted. Finally, we demonstrate that Gaia can be used to measure the secular decline in the luminosity of the Crab pulsar, and provide a new test of pulsar models.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1811.12272
- Bibcode:
- 2019ApJ...871...92F
- Keywords:
-
- ISM: supernova remnants;
- pulsars: general;
- pulsars: individual: Crab;
- Vela;
- supernovae: general;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- Revised version submitted to ApJ after referee report
