A Census of High-Energy Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first comprehensive public database of high-energy observations of all known Galactic supernova remnants, facilitating research in particle acceleration and multi-wavelength studies.

Contribution

It provides a new, accessible database linking radio and high-energy observations of Galactic SNRs, with tools for browsing and statistics to support the community.

Findings

Compilation of high-energy data for all known Galactic SNRs

Web-based interface for data access and browsing

Initial statistical overview of the SNR observations

Abstract

We present the first public database of high-energy observations of all known Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs). In section 1 we introduce the rationale for this work motivated primarily by studying particle acceleration in SNRs, and which aims at bridging the already existing census of Galactic SNRs (primarily made at radio wavelengths) with the ever-growing but diverse observations of these objects at high-energies (in the X-ray and gamma-ray regimes). In section 2 we show how users can browse the database using a dedicated web front-end (http://www.physics.umanitoba.ca/snr/SNRcat). In section 3 we give some basic statistics about the records we have collected so far, which provides a summary of our current view of Galactic SNRs. Finally, in section 4, we discuss some possible extensions of this work. We believe that this catalogue will be useful to both observers and theorists, and timely with the synergy in radio/high-energy SNR studies as well as the upcoming new high-energy missions. A feedback form provided on the website will allow users to provide comments or input, thus helping us keep the database up-to-date with the latest observations.