SPI/INTEGRAL observation of the Galactic central radian: contribution of discrete sources and implication for the diffuse emission

Abstract

The INTEGRAL observatory has been performing a deep survey of the Galactic central radian since 2003, with the goal of both extracting a catalog of sources and gaining insight into the Galactic diffuse emission. This paper concentrates on the estimation of the total point sources emission contribution. It is now clear that unresolved point sources contribute to the observed diffuse emission; the increasing sensitivity of instruments with time has lead to a steady decrease in estimates of this ``diffuse emission''. We have analysed the first year data obtained with the spectrometer and imager SPI on board INTEGRAL. First, a catalog of 63 hard X-ray sources detected, time-averaged, during our 2003 Galactic plane survey, is derived. Second, after extracting the spectra of the sources detected by SPI, their combined contribution is compared to the total (resolved and unresolved) emission from the Galactic ridge. The data analysis is complex: it requires us to split the total emission into several components, as discrete sources and diffuse emission are superimposed in SPI data. The main result is that point source emission dominates in the hard X-ray/soft $\gamma$-ray domain, and contributes around 90 % of the total emission around 100 keV, while above 250 keV, diffuse electron-positron annihilation, through its three-photon positronium continuum with a positronium fraction $\sim$ 0.97 and the 511 keV electron-positron line, dominates over the sources.

arXiv commentaccepted for publication in ApJ

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• Continuum gamma-ray emission from light dark matter positrons and electrons
• The INTEGRAL Galactic bulge monitoring program: the first 1.5 years
• Integral X-ray constraints on sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Annihilation Emission from the Galactic Black Hole
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• Improved Limits on Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter using Full-Sky Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor Data
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• Unveiling the high energy tail of 1E 1740.7-2942 with INTEGRAL
• Primordial black holes and the observed Galactic 511 keV line
• Integral/Ibis Census of the Sky Beyond 100 kev
• 15 years of Galactic surveys and hard X-ray Background measurements
• Swift follow-up observations of unclassified ASCA sources
• Centaurus A at Hard X-rays and Soft Gamma-rays
• Soft gamma-ray sources detected by INTEGRAL
• The catalog of variable sources detected by INTEGRAL I: Catalog and Techniques
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• Putting all the X in one basket: Updated X-ray constraints on sub-GeV Dark Matter