Long-term evolution of a supernova remnant hosting a double neutron star binary

TL;DR

This study models the evolution of ultra-stripped supernova remnants in a complex circumstellar medium, predicting their faint radio signatures and rarity, which explains the lack of observed remnants hosting double neutron star binaries.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation of USSNR evolution considering realistic CSM structures, highlighting their faintness and low occurrence rate compared to other SNRs.

Findings

USSNRs have low radio luminosity and surface brightness.

They are rare, constituting about 0.1-1% of all SNRs.

Their faintness explains the absence of observed SNRs with DNS binaries.

Abstract

An ultra-stripped supernova (USSN) is a type of core-collapse SN explosion proposed to be a candidate formation site of a double neutron star (DNS) binary. We investigate the dynamical evolution of an ultra-stripped supernova remnant (USSNR), which should host a DNS at its center. By accounting for the mass-loss history of the progenitor binary using a model developed by a previous study, we construct the large-scale structure of the {circumstellar medium (CSM)} up to a radius $\sim 100\,{\rm pc}$, and simulate the explosion and subsequent evolution of a USSN surrounded by such a CSM environment. We find that the CSM encompasses an extended region characterized by a hot plasma with a temperature $\sim 10^8\,$K located around the termination shock of the wind from the progenitor binary ($\sim 10\,$pc), and the USSNR blastwave is drastically weakened while penetrating through this hot plasma. Radio continuum emission from a young USSNR is sufficiently bright to be detectable if it inhabits our Galaxy but faint compared to the observed Galactic SNRs, and thereafter declines in luminosity through adiabatic cooling. Within our parameter space, USSNRs typically exhibit a low radio luminosity and surface brightness compared to the known Galactic SNRs. Due to the small event rate of USSNe and their relatively short observable lifespan, we calculate that USSNRs account for only $\sim 0.1$-$1$ % of the total SNR population. This is consistent with the fact that no SNR hosting a DNS binary has been discovered in the Milky Way so far.