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Title: The spectrum and morphology of the Fermi bubbles

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
;  [1]; ; ; ; ; ;  [2];  [3]; ;  [4];  [5];  [6]; ;  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];
  1. Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, D-15738 Zeuthen (Germany)
  2. W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
  3. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
  4. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa, I-56127 Pisa (Italy)
  5. Laboratoire AIM, CEA-IRFU/CNRS/Université Paris Diderot, Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette (France)
  6. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, I-34127 Trieste (Italy)
  7. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova, I-35131 Padova (Italy)
  8. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, and Università di Trieste, I-34127 Trieste (Italy)
  9. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
  10. Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, Université Montpellier 2, CNRS/IN2P3, Montpellier (France)
  11. Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet, École polytechnique, CNRS/IN2P3, Palaiseau (France)

The Fermi bubbles are two large structures in the gamma-ray sky extending to 55° above and below the Galactic center. We analyze 50 months of Fermi Large Area Telescope data between 100 MeV and 500 GeV above 10° in Galactic latitude to derive the spectrum and morphology of the Fermi bubbles. We thoroughly explore the systematic uncertainties that arise when modeling the Galactic diffuse emission through two separate approaches. The gamma-ray spectrum is well described by either a log parabola or a power law with an exponential cutoff. We exclude a simple power law with more than 7σ significance. The power law with an exponential cutoff has an index of 1.9 ± 0.2 and a cutoff energy of 110 ± 50 GeV. We find that the gamma-ray luminosity of the bubbles is 4.4{sub −0.9}{sup +2.4}×10{sup 37} erg s{sup –1}. We confirm a significant enhancement of gamma-ray emission in the southeastern part of the bubbles, but we do not find significant evidence for a jet. No significant variation of the spectrum across the bubbles is detected. The width of the boundary of the bubbles is estimated to be 3.4{sub −2.6}{sup +3.7} deg. Both inverse Compton (IC) models and hadronic models including IC emission from secondary leptons fit the gamma-ray data well. In the IC scenario, synchrotron emission from the same population of electrons can also explain the WMAP and Planck microwave haze with a magnetic field between 5 and 20 μG.

OSTI ID:
22364998
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 793, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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A Review of Recent Observations of Galactic Winds Driven by Star Formation journal December 2018
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The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter journal May 2017
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Revealing the Milky Way’s Hidden Circumgalactic Medium with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Quasar Database for Galactic Absorption Lines journal January 2019
X-Ray Observation of a Magnetized Hot Gas Outflow in the Galactic Center Region journal April 2019
The Large-scale Ionization Cones in the Galaxy journal November 2019
The Bending Feature of the Fermi Bubbles: A Presumed Horizontal Galactic Wind and Its Implication on the Bubbles’ Age journal December 2018
Millisecond Pulsars and the Gamma-Ray Excess in Andromeda journal January 2019
Planck 2015 results : XIII. Cosmological parameters journal September 2016
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Measurement of cosmic-ray electrons at TeV energies by VERITAS text January 2018
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Planck 2015 results : X. Diffuse component separation: Foreground maps journal September 2016
The e-ASTROGAM mission text January 2017
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Planck 2015 results : XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second journal September 2016
Resolving the Extragalactic $\gamma$-Ray Background above 50 GeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope text January 2016
Gamma-ray sky points to radial gradients in cosmic-ray transport text January 2014
Galactic Neutrinos in the TeV to PeV Range text January 2015
Horizon-Scale Lepton Acceleration in Jets: Explaining the Compact Radio Emission in M87 text January 2015
The Galactic Center GeV Excess from a Series of Leptonic Cosmic-Ray Outbursts text January 2015
Planck 2015 results. XXV. Diffuse low-frequency Galactic foregrounds text January 2015
CHANG-ES IV: Radio continuum emission of 35 edge-on galaxies observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in D-configuration, Data Release 1 text January 2015
The e-ASTROGAM mission (exploring the extreme Universe with gamma rays in the MeV-GeV range) text January 2016
Galactic Bulge Preferred Over Dark Matter for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess text January 2016
A theoretical explanation for the Central Molecular Zone asymmetry text January 2017
Imprints of Cosmic Rays in Multifrequency Observations of the Interstellar Emission text January 2017
X-ray and Gamma-ray Observations of the Fermi Bubbles and NPS/Loop I Structures text January 2018
Possible connection between the asymmetry of North Polar Spur and Loop I with Fermi Bubbles text January 2018
The C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS): Design and capabilities text January 2018
On the progressive hardening of the cosmic-ray proton spectrum in the inner Galaxy text January 2018
The Bending Feature of the Fermi Bubbles: A Presumed Horizontal Galactic Wind and Its Implication on the Bubbles' Age text January 2018
A Review of Recent Observations of Galactic Winds Driven by Star Formation text January 2018
X-ray Observation of a Magnetized Hot Gas Outflow in the Galactic Center Region text January 2019
Hard and bright gamma-ray emission at the base of the Fermi bubbles text January 2019
Cosmic rays escaping from Galactic starburst-driven superbubbles text January 2019
Winds and feedback from supermassive black holes accreting at low rates: Hydrodynamical treatment text January 2019
Search for Sources of Astrophysical Neutrinos Using Seven Years of IceCube Cascade Events text January 2019
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