Can Unresolved Point Sources Produce the Diffuse X-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center?

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Galactic Center, Chandra, Point Sources, Sgr A*, X-Rays, Survey

Scientific paper

We compare the spectra of faint point sources and diffuse emission from a long Chandra observation of the Galactic center in order to place an upper limit on the fraction of the diffuse X-ray emission that could plausibly be produced by unresolved point sources. The diffuse X-rays can be described as emission from two collisional-equilibrium plasma components with kT ~ 0.8 keV and kT ~ 8 keV. The diffuse emission varies significantly both in intensity and spectrum on spatial scales of a few arcminutes. Therefore, unresolved point sources produce less than 40% of the total diffuse emission, and less than 45% of the putative kT ~ 8 keV emission. The surface density of unresolved point sources (inferred by extrapolating the number-flux distribution of observed sources) is remarkably consistent with the number of CVs expected in the field. The remaining hard, diffuse X-ray emission probably originates from a thermal or quasi-thermal plasma, or from interactions between cosmic ray electrons and background ions.

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