On the Supernova Remnants produced by pulsars

Abstract

We conclude that pulsar-driven supernova remnants (SNRs) are extremely rare objects. Indeed an analysis of the known sample of plerions suggests a very low birthrate ~1 in 240 years. Long-lived and bright plerions like the Crab nebula are likely to be produced only when the pulsar has an initial period ~10-20 milliseconds and a field ~10¹² G. Such pulsars inside rapidly expanding shell remnants should also produce detectable plerions. The extreme rarity of SNRs with such hybrid morphology leads us to conclude that these pulsars must have been born with an initial period larger than ~35-70 milliseconds.