Dark Supernova Remnants Revealed by CO-Line Bubbles in the W43 Molecular Complex along the 4-kpc Galactic Arm

Abstract

Fine structure of the density distribution in giant molecular clouds (GMCs) around W43 (G31+00+90 km s−1at ∼5.5 kpc) was analyzed using the FUGIN* CO-line survey at high-angular (20”∼0.5 pc) and velocity (1.3 km s−1) resolutions (*Four-receiver-system Unbiased Galactic Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope). The GMCs show highly turbulent structures, and the eddies are found to exhibit spherical bubble morphology appearing in narrow ranges of velocity channels. The bubbles are dark in radio continuum emission, unlike usual supernova remnants (SNR) or HII regions, and in infrared dust emission, unlike molecular bubbles around young stellar objects. The CO bubbles are interpreted as due to fully evolved buried SNRs in molecular clouds after rapid exhaustion of the released energy in dense molecular clouds. Then, the CO bubbles may be a direct evidence for exciting and maintaining the turbulence in GMCs by SN origin. Search for CO bubbles as “dark SNRs” (dSNR) will have implication to estimate the supernova rate more accurately, and hence the star formation activity in the Milky Way.

Keywords

• galaxies: individual (Milky Way)
• ISM: CO line
• ISM: molecular clouds
• ISM: supernova remnant