An Imaging and Spectral Study of Ten X-Ray Filaments around the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of 10 new non-thermal X-ray filaments near the Galactic center, likely associated with pulsar wind nebulae, revealing insights into high-energy processes and pulsar activity in that region.

Contribution

First detection of 10 new X-ray filaments around the Galactic center with spectral and morphological analysis suggesting pulsar wind nebulae origins.

Findings

Most filaments have non-thermal spectra.

Filament luminosities range from 10^32 to 10^33 ergs/s.

Filament tails point outward, indicating high-velocity winds.

Abstract

We report the detection of 10 new X-ray filaments using the data from the {\sl Chandra} X-ray satellite for the inner $6^{\prime}$ ($\sim 15$ parsec) around the Galactic center (GC). All these X-ray filaments are characterized by non-thermal energy spectra, and most of them have point-like features at their heads that point inward. Fitted with the simple absorbed power-law model, the measured X-ray flux from an individual filament in the 2-10 keV band is $\sim 2.8\times10^{-14}$ to $10^{-13}$ ergs cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and the absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity is $\sim 10^{32}-10^{33}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ at a presumed distance of 8 kpc to the GC. We speculate the origin(s) of these filaments by morphologies and by comparing their X-ray images with the corresponding radio and infrared images. On the basis of combined information available, we suspect that these X-ray filaments might be pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) associated with pulsars of age $10^3 \sim 3\times 10^5$ yr. The fact that most of the filament tails point outward may further suggest a high velocity wind blowing away form the GC.