Distance of three Supernova Remnants from HI line observations in a complex region: G114.3+0.3, G116.5+1.1, and CTB 1 (G116.9+0.2)

We present new radio continuum and HI images towards the supernova remnants (SNRs) G114.3+0.3, G116.5+1.1, and G116.9+0.2 (CTB 1) taken from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). We discuss the dynamics of their HI environment and a possible relationship of these SNRs with each other. We discovered patches of HI emission surrounding G114.3+0.3 indicating a location in the Local arm at a distance of about 700 pc in contrast to previous publications which proposed a Perseus arm location. The other two SNRs have radial velocities of -17 km/s (G116.5+1.1) and -27 km/s (CTB 1) according to related HI. However, the structure of the HI and its dynamics in velocity space suggest a possible relation between them, placing both remnants at a distance of about 1.6 kpc. CTB 1 appears to be embedded in an HI feature which is moving as a whole towards us with a velocity of about 10 km/s. Furthermore, the off-centered location of CTB 1 in a large HI bubble indicates that the so-called breakout region of the remnant is in fact due to its expansion towards the low density interior of this bubble. We believe that the progenitor star of CTB 1 was an early B or O-type star shaping its environment with a strong stellar wind in which case it exploded in a Ib or Ic event.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa