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arXiv 1005.4807astro-ph.HE
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银河系中心分子云Sgr B2的衰落硬X射线辐射

Fading hard X-ray emission from the Galactic Centre molecular cloud Sgr B2

R. Terrier, G. Ponti, G. Belanger, A. Decourchelle, V. Tatischeff, A. Goldwurm, G. Trap, M. R. Morris, R. Warwick

摘要:

我们银河系的中心有一个400万太阳质量的黑洞,它异常安静:它现在的X射线光度比爱丁顿光度低10个数量级以上。从银河系中心周围的一些大质量分子云中观测到的铁荧光和硬X射线发射被解释为过去耀斑的回声。另一种可能性是,在云内传播的低能宇宙射线可能通过低能离子的逆韧致辐射或低能电子的韧致辐射来解释观测到的辐射。在这里,我们报告的观察一个明确的衰变的硬X射线发射的分子云Sgr B2在过去的7年中感谢超过20毫秒的INTEGRAL曝光。所测得的衰变时间与分子云核的光穿越时间是一致的。如此短的时间尺度排除了宇宙射线离子的逆韧致辐射作为X射线发射的起源。我们还获得了2-100 keV的宽带X射线光谱结合积分和XMM-牛顿数据,并将它们与详细的模型的X射线发射由于分子气体的照射(i)低能宇宙射线电子和(ii)硬X射线。这两个模型都能同样好地重现数据,但时间变化的限制和巨大的宇宙射线电子光度所需的解释所观察到的硬X射线发射强烈支持的情况下,散射和再处理辐射的Sgr B2的Sgr A* 在过去发出的散射。使用最近的视差测量,将Sgr B2放在Sgr A* 的前面,我们发现Sgr A* 的强烈活动期在75年至155年前结束。

英文摘要:

The centre of our Galaxy harbours a 4 million solar mass black hole that is unusually quiet: its present X-ray luminosity is more than 10 orders of magnitude less than its Eddington luminosity. The observation of iron fluorescence and hard X-ray emission from some of the massive molecular clouds surrounding the Galactic Centre has been interpreted as an echo of a past flare. Alternatively, low-energy cosmic rays propagating inside the clouds might account for the observed emission, through inverse bremsstrahlung of low energy ions or bremsstrahlung emission of low energy electrons. Here we report the observation of a clear decay of the hard X-ray emission from the molecular cloud Sgr B2 during the past 7 years thanks to more than 20 Ms of INTEGRAL exposure. The measured decay time is compatible with the light crossing time of the molecular cloud core . Such a short timescale rules out inverse bremsstrahlung by cosmic-ray ions as the origin of the X ray emission. We also obtained 2-100 keV broadband X-ray spectra by combining INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton data and compared them with detailed models of X-ray emission due to irradiation of molecular gas by (i) low-energy cosmic-ray electrons and (ii) hard X-rays. Both models can reproduce the data equally well, but the time variability constraints and the huge cosmic ray electron luminosity required to explain the observed hard X-ray emission strongly favor the scenario in which the diffuse emission of Sgr B2 is scattered and reprocessed radiation emitted in the past by Sgr A*. Using recent parallax measurements that place Sgr B2 in front of Sgr A*, we find that the period of intense activity of Sgr A* ended between 75 and 155 years ago.

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