Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Mar 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997mnras.285..573b&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 285, Issue 3, pp. 573-579.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
6
Instabilities, Mhd, Galaxy: Centre
Scientific paper
The oddest and longest filament discovered at our Galactic Centre is a uniquely kinked structure approximately 150 light-years long and two to three light-years wide - the `snake'. Furthermore, there is energetic activity at one end (observed H ii regions) and a supernova bubble at the other, which the snake appears to penetrate unharmed. I model this structure in terms of the electrodynamic view of the Galactic Centre, in which currents set up coherent magnetic structures. The kinks arise from a kinking instability that is in progress, producing the brightest regions of the snake. The snake's display of kinks without a sausage instability constrains the pinch ratio B_theta/B_z to ~1. Non-linear large kink excursions should drive shocks, producing particle acceleration and the observed peaked synchrotron emission at the kink maxima. Filamentary instabilities can rapidly evolve in current-driving acceleration zones (perhaps the observed H ii regions), feeding further filamentary structures as the system evolves. A circuit picture seems capable of qualitative agreement with the properties of the snake.
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