Hard X-ray view of the past activity of Sgr A* in a natural Compton mirror
M.G. Revnivtsev(1,2), E.M. Churazov(1,2), S.Yu. Sazonov(1,2), R.A. Sunyaev(1,2), A.A. Lutovinov(1),, M.R. Gilfanov(1,2), A.A. Vikhlinin(1,3), P.E. Shtykovsky(1) and M.N. Pavlinsky(1)
(1) Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117997 Moscow, Russia & Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85740 Garching bei München, Germany & Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Paper: A&A 2004, in press
Abstract:
We report the association of the recently discovered hard
X-ray source \igr with the giant molecular cloud \sgrb in
the Galactic Center region. The broad band (3-200 keV) spectrum of
the source constructed from data of different observatories strongly
supports
the idea that the X-ray emission of \sgrb is Compton scattered
and reprocessed radiation emitted in the past by the \sgra source. We
conclude that 300-400 years ago \sgra was a low luminosity (L
1.5* 1039 erg s-1 at 2-200 keV) AGN with a
characteristic hard X-ray spectrum (photon index \Gamma
1.8). We estimate the mass and iron abundance of the \sgrb
scattering gas at 2* 106Mo(r/10 pc)2 and
1.9 solar, respectively (where r is the radius of the
cloud).
Preprints available from the authors at mikej@mpa-garching.mpg.de
,
or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.
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