A New Optical Survey of Supernova Remnant Candidates in M31

Abstract

We present a survey of optically emitting supernova remnants (SNRs) in M31 based on H$\alpha$ and [SII] images in the Local Group Survey. Using these images, we select objects that have [SII]:H$\alpha$ $>$ 0.4 and circular shapes. We find 76 new SNR candidates. We also inspect 234 SNR candidates presented in previous studies, finding that only 80 of them are SNR candidates according to our criteria. Combining them with the new candidates, we produce a master catalog of 156 SNR candidates in M31. We classify these SNR candidates according to two criteria: the SNR progenitor type [Type Ia and core-collapse (CC) SNRs] and the morphological type. Type Ia and CC SNR candidates make up 23% and 77%, respectively, of the total sample. Most of the CC SNR candidates are concentrated in the spiral arms, while the Type Ia SNR candidates are rather distributed over the entire galaxy, including the inner region. The CC SNR candidates are brighter in H$\alpha$ and [SII] than the Type Ia SNR candidates. We derive a cumulative size distribution of the SNR candidates, finding that the distribution of the candidates with 17 $<D<$ 50 pc is fitted well by a power law with the power law index $\alpha =2.53\pm 0.04$. This indicates that most of the SNR candidates identified in this study appear to be in the Sedov-Taylor phase. The [SII]:H$\alpha$ distribution of the SNR candidates is bimodal, with peaks at [SII]:H$\alpha$ $\sim$ 0.4 and $\sim$ 0.9. The properties of these SNR candidates vary little with the galactocentric distance. The H$\alpha$ and [SII] surface brightnesses show a good correlation with the X-ray luminosity of the SNR candidates that are center-bright. The SNR candidates with X-ray counterparts have higher surface brightnesses in H$\alpha$ and [SII] and smaller sizes than those without such counterparts.

55 pages, 23 figures, 6 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. I. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in M31 and M33
• The Stellar Ancestry of Supernovae in the Magellanic Clouds - I. the Most Recent Supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Chandra ACIS Survey of M33 (ChASeM33): A First Look
• An optical search for supernova remnants in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2903

Cited by in corpus (28)

• On the rate of core collapse supernovae in the Milky Way
• A SITELLE view of M31's central region - I: Calibrations and radial velocity catalogue of nearly 800 emission-line point-like sources
• Properties of Optically Selected Supernova Remnant Candidates in M33
• A Statistical Analysis of Galactic Radio Supernova Remnants
• PHANGS-MUSE: Detection and Bayesian classification of ~40000 ionised nebulae in nearby spiral galaxies
• Supernova Remnants in M33: X-ray Properties as Observed by XMM-Newton
• Kinematics: A Clean Diagnostic for Separating Supernova Remnants from HII Regions in Nearby Galaxies
• A New, Deep JVLA Radio Survey of M33
• Observational Evidence for Enhanced Black Hole Accretion in Giant Elliptical Galaxies
• Optical supernova remnants in nearby galaxies and their influence on star formation rates derived from H$\alpha$ emission
• A LOFAR radio search for single and periodic pulses from M31
• Optical Spectroscopy of Supernova Remnants in M81 and M82
• Discovery of $\sim$2200 new supernova remnants in 19 nearby star-forming galaxies with MUSE spectroscopy
• The radial distribution of supernovae compared to star formation tracers
• The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array Local Group L-band Survey (LGLBS)
• Study of the thermal and nonthermal emission components in M31: the Sardinia Radio Telescope view at 6.6 GHz
• Optical Identification and Spectroscopy of Supernova Remnants in the Galaxy M51
• A study of extragalactic planetary nebulae populations based on spectroscopy. I. Data compilation and first findings
• The Masses of Supernova Remnant Progenitors in M33
• The Supernova Remnant Populations of the galaxies NGC 45, NGC 55, NGC 1313, NGC 7793: Luminosity and Excitation Functions
• Discovery of 20 UV Emitting SNRs in M31 with UVIT
• Multiwavelength Study of the X-Ray Bright Supernova Remnant N300-S26 in NGC 300
• Testing the Momentum-driven Supernova Feedback Paradigm in M31
• The Dust Mass of Supernova Remnants in M31
• Impact of the external radiation field on the structure and evolution of supernova remnants
• Galactic magnetic fields II. Applying the model to nearby galaxies
• New X-ray Supernova Remnants in NGC 7793
• NGC 2366 : An optical search for possible supernova remnants