HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY DETECTION OF G359.89–0.08 (SGR A–E): MAGNETIC FLUX TUBE EMISSION POWERED BY COSMIC RAYS?
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Shuo-2014-High-energy x-ray de.pdf
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Author(s)
Zhang, Shuo
Hailey, Charles J.
Bauer, Franz E.
Boggs, Steven E.
Craig, William W.
Christensen, Finn E.
Gotthelf, Eric V.
Harrison, Fiona A.
Mori, Kaya
Nynka, Melania
Date Issued
February 2014
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Zhang, Shuo, Charles J. Hailey, Frederick K. Baganoff, Franz E. Bauer, Steven E. Boggs, William W. Craig, Finn E. Christensen, et al. “HIGH-ENERGY X-RAY DETECTION OF G359.89–0.08 (SGR A–E): MAGNETIC FLUX TUBE EMISSION POWERED BY COSMIC RAYS?” The Astrophysical Journal 784, no. 1 (February 25, 2014): 6. © 2014 The American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We report the first detection of high-energy X-ray (E > 10 keV) emission from the Galactic center non-thermal filament G359.89–0.08 (Sgr A–E) using data acquired with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The bright filament was detected up to ~50 keV during a NuSTAR Galactic center monitoring campaign. The featureless power-law spectrum with a photon index Γ ≈ 2.3 confirms a non-thermal emission mechanism. The observed flux in the 3-79 keV band is F[subscript X] = (2.0 ± 0.1) × 10[superscript –12] erg cm[superscript –2] s[superscript –1], corresponding to an unabsorbed X-ray luminosity L[subscript X] = (2.6 ± 0.8) × 10[superscript 34] erg s[superscript –1] assuming a distance of 8.0 kpc. Based on theoretical predictions and observations, we conclude that Sgr A–E is unlikely to be a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) or supernova remnant-molecular cloud (SNR-MC) interaction, as previously hypothesized. Instead, the emission could be due to a magnetic flux tube which traps TeV electrons. We propose two possible TeV electron sources: old PWNe (up to ~100 kyr) with low surface brightness and radii up to ~30 pc or MCs illuminated by cosmic rays (CRs) from CR accelerators such as SNRs or Sgr A*.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/784/1/6
