A search for new supernova remnant shells in the Galactic plane with H.E.S.S

TL;DR

This study used H.E.S.S. gamma-ray data to identify three new supernova remnant candidates in the Galactic plane, with one confirmed through multiwavelength counterpart analysis, advancing understanding of cosmic ray sources.

Contribution

The paper introduces a shell morphology-based method to discover new TeV gamma-ray supernova remnants in the Galactic plane, including the first identification of a radio SNR counterpart.

Findings

Three new SNR candidates identified in H.E.S.S. data.

One candidate confirmed as a SNR through radio counterpart.

Analysis of emission scenarios for the new sources.

Abstract

A search for new supernova remnants (SNRs) has been conducted using TeV gamma-ray data from the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey. As an identification criterion, shell morphologies that are characteristic for known resolved TeV SNRs have been used. Three new SNR candidates were identified in the H.E.S.S. data set with this method. Extensive multiwavelength searches for counterparts were conducted. A radio SNR candidate has been identified to be a counterpart to HESS J1534-571. The TeV source is therefore classified as a SNR. For the other two sources, HESS J1614-518 and HESS J1912+101, no identifying counterparts have been found, thus they remain SNR candidates for the time being. TeV-emitting SNRs are key objects in the context of identifying the accelerators of Galactic cosmic rays. The TeV emission of the relativistic particles in the new sources is examined in view of possible leptonic and hadronic emission scenarios, taking the current multiwavelength knowledge into account.