Evolution of pulsar-driven supernova remnants

Abstract

Radio and X-ray observations of the growing class of Crab-like supernova remnants ("plerions") suggest that a central pulsar dominates their evolution. The authors model a plerion as a spherical, homogeneous bubble of relativistic particles and magnetic field inflated by a pulsar amid uniformly expanding supernova ejecta. They calculate the dynamical evolution of the bubble, and the concurrent evolution of the synchrotron luminosity, for a variety of assumptions about field-particle coupling and the nature of the ejecta. The models are compared with radio observations of five plerions; good fits are obtained with reasonable values of input parameters.