G7.7-3.7: a young supernova remnant probably associated with the guest star in 386 CE (SN 386)

• Published in: arXiv.org 2018-09
• Main Authors: Zhou, Ping, Vink, Jacco, Li, Geng, Domcek, Vladimir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asterism; Gamma rays; Ionization; Luminosity; Morphology; Supernova remnants; Supernovae; Visibility; XMM (spacecraft)
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1809.03535

Although the Galactic supernova rate is about 2 per century, only few supernova remnants are associated with historical records. There are a few ancient Chinese records of "guest stars" that are probably sightings of supernovae for which the associated supernova remnant is not established. Here we present an X-ray study of the supernova remnant G7.7-3.7, as observed by XMM-Newton, and discuss its probable association with the guest star of 386 CE. This guest star occurred in the ancient Chinese asterism Nan-Dou, which is part of Sagittarius. The X-ray morphology of G7.7-3.7 shows an arc-like feature in the SNR south, which is characterized by an under-ionized plasma with sub-solar abundances, a temperature of 0.4--0.8 keV, and a density of \(\sim 0.5(d/4 kpc)^{-0.5}\) cm\(^{-3}\). A small shock age of \(1.2\pm 0.6 (d/4 kpc)^{0.5}\) kyr is inferred from the low ionization timescale of \(2.4^{+1.1}_{-1.3}\times 10^{10}\) cm\(^{-3}\) s of the X-ray arc. The low foreground absorption (\(N_H=3.5\pm0.5\times 10^{21}\) cm\(^{-2}\)) of G7.7-3.7 made the supernova explosion visible to the naked eyes on the Earth. The position of G7.7-3.7 is consistent with the event of 386 CE, and the X-ray properties suggest that also its age is consistent. Interestingly, the association between G7.7-3.7 and guest star 386 would suggest the supernova to be a low-luminosity supernova, in order to explain the not very long visibility (2--4 months) of the guest star.