paper

Stochastic Acceleration in the Galactic Center HESS Source

arXiv:astro-ph/0603137 · doi:10.1086/505171

Abstract

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. The longer wavelength radiation is produced at larger radii by electrons either diffusing from smaller scales or accelerated in situ. An important prediction of this model is the ejection of a significant flux of relativistic protons from a magnetic-field-dominated acceleration site into the wind-shocked medium surrounding the black hole. Recently, several air Cerenkov telescopes, notably HESS, have detected TeV emission from the Galactic center, with characteristics hinting at a p-p-induced pion decay process for the γ-ray emission. Given (1) the size of this acceleration region measured in the radio band and (2) the wind-injected ISM mapped with Chandra using the diffuse X-rays, it is feasible to test the idea that protons accelerated within \~20 Schwarzschild radii of the black hole produce the TeV emission farther out. We show a fraction of TeV protons scattering about once within ~3 pc of Sagittarius A* and the proton power (~10^37 erg s^-1) produced in concert with the 7 mm radio emission matches the TeV luminosity well. This model explains why the TeV source does not vary on a timescale of a year or less. The particle cascade generated by the p-p scatterings also produces bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton, and synchrotron emission at longer wavelengths from secondary particles. We compare these with current measurements and demonstrate that GLAST will detect this source during its one-year all-sky survey.

19 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (1)

Cited by in corpus (43)