Pulsar-wind-nebula-powered Galactic center X-ray filament G0.13–0.11
E. Churazov, Ildar Khabibullin, Thibault Barnouin, N. Bucciantini, E. Costa, Laura Di Gesu, Alessandro Di Marco, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, W. Forman, P. Kaaret, Dawoon E. Kim, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Ralph Kraft, Frédéric Marin, G. Matt, Michela Negro, Roger W. Romani, Stefano Silvestri, P. Soffitta, R. Sunyaev, Jiří Svoboda, A. Vikhlinin, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, I. Agudo, L. A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, L. Baldini, W. H. Baumgartner, R. Bellazzini, S. Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, R. Bonino, A. Brez, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, E. Cavazzuti, Chien‐Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, E. Del Monte, Niccolò Di Lalla, I. Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Y. Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, W. Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, V. Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, H. Krawczynski, Fabio La Monaca, L. Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, S. Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, F. Massaro, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Fabio Muleri, C.‐Y. Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, N. Omodei, C. Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, M. Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, M. Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, O. J. Roberts, C. Sgró, Patrick Slane, G. Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, F. Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi
Abstract
We report the discovery of X-ray polarization from the X-ray-bright filament G0.13−0.11 in the Galactic center (GC) region. This filament features a bright, hard X-ray source that is most plausibly a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) and an extended and structured diffuse component. Combining the polarization signal from IXPE with the imaging/spectroscopic data from Chandra , we find that X-ray emission of G0.13−0.11 is highly polarized PD = 57(±18)% in the 3−6 keV band, while the polarization angle is PA = 21 ° ( ± 9 ° ). This high degree of polarization proves the synchrotron origin of the X-ray emission from G0.13−0.11. In turn, the measured polarization angle implies that the X-ray emission is polarized approximately perpendicular to a sequence of nonthermal radio filaments that may be part of the GC Radio Arc. The magnetic field on the order of 100 μG appears to be preferentially ordered along the filaments. The above field strength is the fiducial value that makes our model self-consistent, while the other conclusions are largely model independent.