Related papers: Annihilation Emission from the Galactic Black Hole
Recent measurements of stellar orbits provide compelling evidence that the compact radio source Sagittarius A* at the Galactic Centre is a 3.6-million-solar-mass black hole. Sgr A* is remarkably faint in all wavebands other than the radio…
Positron annihilation line at 511~keV is a known component of the gamma-ray diffuse emission. It is believed to be produced in the Galaxy, but there could be possible extragalactic contribution as well. E.g., positrons can be produced in…
A number of signals involving charged cosmic rays and high-energy photons have been interpreted as being due to annihilating dark matter. This article provides an overview of the experimental evidence and discusses in particular detections…
The inner few parsecs at the Galactic Center have come under intense scrutiny in recent years, in part due to the exciting broad-band observations of this region, but also because of the growing interest from theorists motivated to study…
Gamma ray emission of 511 keV lines arising from electron-positron annihilation has been detected from the Galaxy since the 70s. Spatially resolved observations using the INTEGRAL satellite have shown its full sky distribution to be…
The radio source Sgr A* in the Galactic center emits a polarized spectrum at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths that is strongly suggestive of relativistic disk accretion onto a massive black hole. We use the well-constrained mass of…
In spite of increasing evidences of the presence of a massive Black Hole at the Galactic Center, its radio counterpart, Sgr A*, shows little activity at high energies, and recent models involving energy advection (ADAF) have been proposed…
The presence of relativistic particles at the center of our galaxy is evidenced by the diffuse TeV emission detected from the inner $\sim$$2^\circ$ of the Galaxy. Although it is not yet entirely clear whether the origin of the TeV photons…
Stochastic acceleration of electrons interacting resonantly with a turbulent magnetic field in a small accretion torus appears to be the likely mechanism responsible for much of Sagittarius A*'s millimeter and shorter wavelength spectrum.…
High energy (~GeV) positrons are seen within cosmic rays and observation of a narrow line at 511 keV shows that positrons are annihilating in the galaxy after slowing down to ~keV energies or less. Our state of knowledge of the origin of…
Electron-positron annihilation line from a Galactic center direction was discovered by the balloon-borne germanium gamma-ray telescope, and confirmed by OSSE experiment of CGRO mission. Extensive observations by INTEGRAL observatory permit…
Very high-energy gamma-rays (VHE; E>100 GeV) have been detected from the direction of the Galactic Centre up to energies E>10 TeV. Up to now, the origin of this emission is unknown due to the limited positional accuracy of the observing…
We present a spectral analysis of the e+e- annihilation emission from the Galactic Centre region based on the first year of measurements made with the spectrometer SPI of the INTEGRAL mission. We have found that the annihilation spectrum…
The Galaxy hosts a widespread population of low-energy positrons revealed by successive generations of gamma-ray telescopes through a bright annihilation emission from the bulge region, with a fainter contribution from the inner disk. The…
Particle dark matter near the galactic center is accreted by the central black hole into a dense spike, strongly enhancing its annihilation rate. Searching for its annihilation products may give us information on the presence or absence of…
The electron-positron annihilation gamma-ray signal at 511 keV in the Milky Way is investigated towards a possible dark matter interpretation. If all bulge positrons were created by dark matter particle annihilation, the satellite galaxies…
Recent observations of Sgr A$^*$ by Fermi and HESS have detected steady gamma-ray emission in the GeV and TeV bands. We present a new model to explain the GeV gamma-ray emission by inverse Compton scattering by nonthermal electrons supplied…
Observations over the past decade have verified, beyond reasonable doubt, that most galactic nuclei contain massive black holes. Hole masses are being measured and firm evidence for spin is being sought. Attention is now returning to the…
The annihilation of positrons in the Galaxy's interstellar medium produces characteristic gamma-rays with a line at 511 keV. This emission has been observed with the spectrometer SPI on INTEGRAL, confirming a puzzling morphology with bright…
The radio source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is thought to be a supermassive black hole located at the centre of our Galaxy, that is accreting gas from the surrounding region. Using the high inferred accretion rates, however, standard…