Diverse Origin of Galactic Center Non-thermal X-ray Filaments
Abstract
A unique phenomenon of the Galactic center region is the existence of numerous non-thermal filamentary structures, whose source nature has been under debate. The NuSTAR Galactic center and Galactic plane observation campaign allowed us to detect four non-thermal X-ray filaments above 10 keV: G359.89-0.08 or Sgr A-E, G359.97-0.038, G0.13-0.11 and G359.95-0.04. These hard X-ray filaments are among the brightest in soft X-ray band of 2-8 keV, with luminosities above 8e32 erg/s at a distance of 8 kpc. The broadband 3-79 keV NuSTAR data points to a diverse origin for these filamentary structures: Sgr A-E is best explained by a magnetic flux tube trapping 100 TeV cosmic-ray electrons; G359.97-0.038 can be best interpreted as Sgr A East shell interacting with the 50 km/s cloud; G0.13-0.11 and G359.95-0.04 are pulsar wind nebula candidates. Future deeper X-ray Galactic center surveys will be able to detect more X-ray filaments and reveal whether there is dominant source origin for this unique type of sources.
- Publication:
-
42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018cosp...42E3840Z