Origin of Thermal and Non-Thermal Hard X-ray Emission from the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origin of hard X-ray emissions from the Galactic Center, proposing that accretion processes onto the supermassive black hole generate subrelativistic protons that heat plasma and produce non-thermal X-ray flux.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking accretion-induced proton fluxes to observed hard X-ray emissions, a novel explanation for the Galactic Center's high-energy phenomena.

Findings

Subrelativistic protons heat plasma to 6-10 keV.

Inverse bremsstrahlung produces non-thermal X-ray flux above 10 keV.

Accretion processes can account for observed X-ray emissions.

Abstract

We analyse new results of Chandra and Suzaku which found a flux of hard X-ray emission from the compact region around Sgr A$^\ast$ (r ~ 100 pc). We suppose that this emission is generated by accretion processes onto the central supermassive blackhole when an unbounded part of captured stars obtains an additional momentum. As a result a flux of subrelativistic protons is generated near the Galactic center which heats the background plasma up to temperatures about 6-10 keV and produces by inverse bremsstrahlung a flux of non-thermal X-ray emission in the energy range above 10 keV.