Decaying Sterile Neutrinos as a Heating Source in the Milky Way Center

M. H. Chan and M. -C. Chu

Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China

Paper: MNRAS in press

EPrint Server: 0806.1311


Abstract:

Recent Chandra and Newton observations indicate that there are two-temperature components (T 8 keV, 0.8 keV) of the diffuse x-rays emitted from deep inside the center of Milky Way. We show that this can be explained by the existence of sterile neutrinos, which decay to emit photons that can be bound-free absorbed by the isothermal hot gas particles in the center of Milky Way. The model can account for a stable configuration of the two-temperature components hot gas naturally as well as the energy needed to maintain the 8 keV temperature in the hot gas. The predicted sterile neutrino mass is between 16-18 keV.


Preprints available from the authors at mhchan@sun1.phy.cuhk.edu.hk , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

Back to the gcnews home-page.