Polarization and long-term variability of Sgr A* X-ray echo

TL;DR

This study models the polarization and variability of Sgr A*'s X-ray echoes, demonstrating the reflection scenario and highlighting the potential of future X-ray polarimetry to pinpoint the source and molecular cloud positions.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified gas distribution model to simulate X-ray reflection and polarization, emphasizing the importance of long-term observations and future polarimetric tests.

Findings

Reflected X-ray emission matches observations from molecular clouds.

Future X-ray polarimetry can constrain the primary source location.

Polarization measurements can determine the line-of-sight positions of clouds.

Abstract

We use a model of the molecular gas distribution within ~100 pc from the center of the Milky Way (Kruijssen, Dale & Longmore) to simulate time evolution and polarization properties of the reflected X-ray emission, associated with the past outbursts from Sgr A*. While this model is too simple to describe the complexity of the true gas distribution, it illustrates the importance and power of long-term observations of the reflected emission. We show that the variable part of X-ray emission observed by Chandra and XMM from prominent molecular clouds is well described by a pure reflection model, providing strong support of the reflection scenario. While the identification of Sgr A* as a primary source for this reflected emission is already a very appealing hypothesis, a decisive test of this model can be provided by future X-ray polarimetric observations, that will allow placing constraints on the location of the primary source. In addition, X-ray polarimeters (like, e.g., XIPE) have sufficient sensitivity to constrain the line-of-sight positions of molecular complexes, removing major uncertainty in the model.