Out of the Frying Pan: A Young Pulsar with a Long Radio Trail Emerging from SNR G315.9-0.0

The faint radio supernova remnant SNR G315.9-0.0 is notable for a long and thin trail that extends outward perpendicular from the edge of its approximately circular shell. In a search with the Parkes telescope, we have found a young and energetic pulsar that is located at the tip of this collimated linear structure. PSR J1437-5959 has period P = 61 ms, characteristic age τ_c = P/(2 \dot{P}) = 114 kyr, and spin-down luminosity \dot{E} = 1.4 × 10^{36} erg s^-1. It is very faint, with a flux density at 1.4 GHz of about 75 μJy. From its dispersion measure of 549 pc cm^-3, we infer d ≈ 8 kpc. At this distance and for an age comparable to τ _c , the implied pulsar velocity in the plane of the sky is V_t = 300 km s^-1 for a birth at the center of the SNR, although it is possible that the SNR/pulsar system is younger than τ _c and that V_t > 300 km s^-1. The highly collimated linear feature is evidently the pulsar wind trail left from the supersonic passage of PSR J1437-5959 through the interstellar medium surrounding SNR G315.9-0.0.