Discovery of a pre-existing molecular filament associated with supernova remnant G127.1+0.5

TL;DR

This study provides the first evidence of a supernova remnant interacting with a pre-existing molecular filament, revealing shock interactions and potential star formation triggered by the remnant.

Contribution

It confirms the association between an SNR and a molecular filament and analyzes the physical conditions of the interaction using multi-band observations and radiative transfer modeling.

Findings

Molecular filament is physically associated with the SNR.

Shock interaction causes line broadening in the filament.

Correlation between young stellar objects and the filament near the SNR.

Abstract

We performed millimeter observations in CO lines toward the supernova remnant (SNR) G127.1+0.5. We found a molecular filament at 4--13 km s$^{-1}$ consisting of two distinct parts: a straight part coming out of the remnant region and a curved part in the remnant region. The curved part is coincides well with the bright SNR shell detected in 1420 MHz radio continuum and mid-infrared observations in the northeastern region. In addition, redshifted line wing broadening is found only in the curved part of the molecular filament, which indicates a physical interaction. These provide strong evidences, for the first time, to confirm the association between an SNR and a pre-existing long molecular filament. Multi-band observations in the northeastern remnant shell could be explained by the interaction between the remnant shock and the dense molecular filament. RADEX radiative transfer modeling of the quiet and shocked components yield physical conditions consistent with the passage of a non-dissociative J-type shock. We argue that the curved part of the filament is fully engulfed by the remnant's forward shock. A spatial correlation between aggregated young stellar objects (YSOs) and the adjacent molecular filament close to the SNR is also found, which could be related to the progenitor's activity.