Expanded Very Large Array Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants: Wide-field Continuum and Spectral-index Imaging

The radio continuum emission from the Galaxy has a rich mix of thermal and non-thermal emission. This very richness makes its interpretation challenging since the low radio opacity means that a radio image represents the sum of all emission regions along the line of sight. These challenges make the existing narrowband radio surveys of the Galactic plane difficult to interpret: e.g., a small region of emission might be a supernova remnant (SNR) or an H II region, or a complex combination of both. Instantaneous wide bandwidth radio observations in combination with the capability for high-resolution spectral-index mapping can be directly used to disentangle these effects. Here we demonstrate simultaneous continuum and spectral-index imaging capability at the full continuum sensitivity and resolution using newly developed wide-band wide-field imaging algorithms. Observations were conducted in the L and C bands with a total bandwidth of 1 and 2 GHz, respectively. We present preliminary results in the form of a full-field continuum image covering the wide-band sensitivity pattern of the EVLA centered on a large but poorly studied SNR (G55.7 + 3.4) and relatively narrower field continuum and spectral-index maps of three fields containing SNR and diffused thermal emission. We demonstrate that spatially resolved spectral-index maps differentiate regions with emission of different physical origins (spectral-index variation across composite SNRs and separation of thermal and non-thermal emission), superimposed along the line of sight. The wide-field image centered on the SNR G55.7+3.4 also demonstrates the excellent wide-field wide-band imaging capability of the EVLA.