Nonthermal THz to TeV Emission from Stellar Wind Shocks in the Galactic Center

Abstract

The central parsec of the Galaxy contains dozens of massive stars with a cumulative mass loss rate of ~ 10^{-3} solar masses per year. Shocks among these stellar winds produce the hot plasma that pervades the central part of the galaxy. We argue that these stellar wind shocks also efficiently accelerate electrons and protons to relativistic energies. The relativistic electrons inverse Compton scatter the ambient ultraviolet and far infrared radiation field, producing high energy gamma-rays with a roughly constant luminosity from \~ GeV to ~ 10 TeV. This can account for the TeV source seen by HESS in the Galactic Center. Our model predicts a GLAST counterpart to the HESS source with a luminosity of ~ 10^{35} ergs/s and cooling break at ~ 4 GeV. Synchrotron radiation from the same relativistic electrons should produce detectable emission at lower energies, with a surface brightness ~ 10^{32} B^2_{-3} ergs/s/arcsec^2 from ~ THz to ~ keV, where B_{-3} is the magnetic field strength in units of mG. The observed level of diffuse thermal X-ray emission in the central parsec requires B < 300 micro-G in our models. Future detection of the diffuse synchrotron background in the central parsec can directly constrain the magnetic field strength, providing an important boundary condition for models of accretion onto Sgr A*.

submitted to ApJ Letters