Metal Enrichment in the Fermi Bubbles as a Probe of Their Origin

TL;DR

This paper suggests that measuring metal abundances in the Fermi bubbles can distinguish between star formation and AGN origin scenarios, with future X-ray missions providing crucial data.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking metallicity patterns in the bubbles to their origin, emphasizing the role of future X-ray observations in resolving this debate.

Findings

Star formation scenarios predict higher metallicities and abundance ratios.

Metal abundance patterns depend on the gamma-ray emission process.

Future X-ray missions can help determine the bubbles' origin.

Abstract

The Fermi bubbles are gigantic gamma-ray structures in our Galaxy. The physical origin of the bubbles is still under debate. The leading scenarios can be divided into two categories. One is the nuclear star forming activity similar to extragalactic starburst galaxies and the other is the past active galactic nucleus (AGN) like activity of the Galactic center supermassive black hole. In this paper, we propose that metal abundance measurements will provide an important clue to probe their origin. Based on a simple spherically symmetric bubble model, we find that the generated metallicity and abundance pattern of the bubbles' gas strongly depend on assumed star formation or AGN activities. Star formation scenarios predict higher metallicities and abundance ratios of [O/Fe] and [Ne/Fe] than AGN scenarios do because of supernovae ejecta. Furthermore, the resultant abundance depends on the gamma-ray emission process because different mass injection histories are required for the different gamma-ray emission processes due to the acceleration and cooling time scales of non-thermal particles. Future X-ray missions such as ASTRO-H and Athena will give a clue to probe the origin of the bubbles through abundance measurements with their high energy resolution instruments.