A Large Scale Survey of X-Ray Filaments in the Galactic Center

S. P. Johnson, H. Dong, and Q. D. Wang


(1) Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

Paper: 2009MNRAS.399.1429


Abstract:

We present a catalog of 17 filamentary X-ray features located within a 68'x34' view centered on the Galactic Center region from images taken by \textitChandra. These features are described by their morphological and spectral properties. Many of the X-ray features have non-thermal spectra that are well fit by an absorbed power-law. Of the 17 features, we find 6 that have not been previously detected, 4 of which are outside the immediate 20'*20' area centered on the GC. 8 of the 17 identified filaments have morphological and spectral properties expected for pulsar wind nebulae with X-ray luminosities of 1032-1033 ergs s-1 in the 2.0-10.0 keV band and photon indexes of \Gamma=1-2. In one feature, we suggest the strong neutral Fe K alpha emission line to be a possible indicator for past activity of Sgr A*. For G359.942-0.03, a particular filament of interest, we propose the model of a ram pressure confined stellar wind bubble from a massive star to account for the morphology, spectral shape and 6.7 keV He-like Fe emission detected. We also present a piecewise spectral analysis on two features of interest, G0.13-0.11 and G359.89-0.08, to further examine their physical interpretations. This analysis favors the PWN scenario for these features.


Preprints available from the authors at wqd@astro.umass.edu , or the raw TeX (no figures) if you click here.

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