Related papers: X-ray Scattering Halos from the Galactic Center: I…
Small angle scattering by dust grains causes a significant contribution to the total interstellar extinction for any X-ray instrument with sub-arcminute resolution (Chandra, Swift, XMM-Newton). However, the dust scattering component is not…
Scattering and absorption of X-rays by interstellar dust is calculated for a model consisting of carbonaceous grains and amorphous silicate grains. The calculations employ realistic dielectric functions with structure near X-ray absorption…
(abridged) We present a catalog of 2357 point sources detected during 590 ks of Chandra observations of the 17-by-17 arcminute field around Sgr A*. This field encompasses a physical area of 40 by 40 pc at a distance of 8 kpc. The…
We suggest that the energy source of the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission from the direction of the Galactic center is the Galactic black hole Sgr A*, which becomes active when a star is captured at a rate of $\sim 10^{-5} $ yr^{-1}.…
We present a detailed study of the X-ray dust scattering halo of the black hole candidate \cygx1 based on two \chandra\ HETGS observations. Using 18 different dust models, including one modified by us (dubbed XLNW), we probe the…
We have observed the Galactic black hole transient 4U 1630-47 during the decay of its 2016 outburst with Chandra and Swift to investigate the properties of the dust scattering halo created by the source. The scattering halo shows a…
The recent detection of a three-hour X-ray flare from Sgr A* by Chandra provides very strong evidence for a compact emitting region near this supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. Sgr A*'s mm/sub-mm spectrum and polarimetric…
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…
We present arcsecond resolution Chandra X-ray and ground-based optical H-alpha imaging of a sample of ten edge-on star-forming disk galaxies (seven starburst and three ``normal'' spiral galaxies), a sample which covers the full range of…
The centre of our Galaxy harbours a 4 million solar mass black hole that is unusually quiet: its present X-ray luminosity is more than 10 orders of magnitude less than its Eddington luminosity. The observation of iron fluorescence and hard…
The soft X-ray background shows a general enhancement toward the inner region of the Galaxy. But whether this enhancement is a local feature (e.g., a superbubble within a distance of <= 200 pc) and/or a phenomenon related to energetic…
A long BeppoSAX observation of the Galactic Center region shows that the spectrum of the diffuse X-ray emission from the SgrA Complex can be described with the sum of two thermal plasma models with temperatures of ~0.6 keV and \~8-9 keV.…
The origin of the X-ray emission from the central region of the Galaxy has remained a mystery, despite extensive study over the past two decades. A fundamental question is the relative contribution of the point-source and diffuse components…
A powerful outburst of X-ray radiation from the supermassive black hole Sgr A* at the center of the Milky Way is believed to be responsible for the illumination of molecular clouds in the central ~100 pc of the Galaxy (Sunyaev et al., 1993,…
Interstellar extinction includes both absorption and scattering of photons from interstellar gas and dust grains, and it has the effect of altering a source's spectrum and its total observed intensity. However, while multiple absorption…
We present the first Chandra results of the giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2), located about 100 pc away from the Galactic center. Diffuse X-rays are clearly separated from one-and-a-half dozen resolved point sources. The X-ray…
We report the detection of a dust scattering halo around a recently discovered X-ray transient, Swift J174540.7-290015, which in early February of 2016 underwent one of the brightest outbursts (F_X ~ 5e-10 erg/cm^2/s) observed from a…
The existing and upcoming multiwavelength data from the Galactic Center suggest a comparative study in order to propose or rule out possible models which would explain the observations. In this paper we consider the X-ray synchrotron and…
Scattering by interstellar dust grains can produce time variable X-ray halos around gamma-ray bursts (GRB). In particular, an X-ray expanding ring is expected when a short pulse of X-ray radiation is scattered by a narrow layer of dust in…
We study the hard X-ray (20-100 keV) variability of the Galactic Center (GC) and of the nearby sources on the time scale of 1000 s. We find that 3 of the 6 hard X-ray sources detected by INTEGRAL within the central 1 degree of the Galaxy…