Using CFHT's SITELLE to Probe the Long-Sought Supernova Remnant Shell in the Crab Nebula

Abstract

We present deep, wide-field integral field spectroscopy of the Crab nebula obtained with the imaging Fourier transform spectrometer SITELLE at the Canada--France--Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), to search for the long-sought forward shock. Our observations target the coronal line [Fe XIV]$λ$5303, a tracer of shock-heated gas, over two $11^{\prime} \times 11^{\prime}$ fields that probe projected radii of $\sim$2.4--10~pc west of the pulsar, encompassing the range in which a supernova shell is expected. After data processing and a search over the full field of view, we found no statistically significant [Fe XIV] emission in the surveyed regions. We derive a conservative average surface-brightness upper limit of $\lesssim 3.79 \times 10^{-17}~\mathrm{erg}~\mathrm{cm}^{-2}~\mathrm{s}^{-1}~\mathrm{arcsec}^{-2}$ over three representative annuli. This represents the deepest large-area optical constraint on coronal iron emission beyond the visible nebula from the Crab's putative supernova remnant (SNR) shell. Our results are consistent with scenarios in which the forward shock is expanding into a very low-density medium, the shocked gas is weak or underionized, or the shell lies outside the observed region. This work demonstrates the power of wide-field optical integral field spectroscopy for constraining faint, large-scale structures in SNRs.