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Polarization of reflected X-ray emission from the Sgr A molecular complex: multiple flares, multiple sources?

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Main Authors:	Khabibullin, Ildar, Churazov, Eugene, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Kaaret, Philip, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Marin, Frédéric, Sunyaev, Rashid, Svoboda, Jiri, Vikhlinin, Alexey, Barnouin, Thibault, Chen, Chien-Ting, Costa, Enrico, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Marco, Alessandro, Ehlert, Steven R., Forman, William, Kim, Dawoon E., Kraft, Ralph, Maksym, W. Peter, Matt, Giorgio, Poutanen, Juri, Soffitta, Paolo, Swartz, Douglas A., Agudo, Ivan, Antonelli, Lucio Angelo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolo, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Ciprini, Stefano, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Lalla, Niccolò, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovciak, Michal, Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Krawczynski, Henric, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, Ng, Chi-Yung, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel Lawrence, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Sgro, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Spandre, Gloria, Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin C., Wu, Kinwah, Xie, Fei, Zane, Silvia
Format:	Preprint
Published:	2025
Subjects:	High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies
Online Access:	Acceder al recurso
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author	Khabibullin, Ildar Churazov, Eugene Ferrazzoli, Riccardo Kaaret, Philip Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J. Marin, Frédéric Sunyaev, Rashid Svoboda, Jiri Vikhlinin, Alexey Barnouin, Thibault Chen, Chien-Ting Costa, Enrico Di Gesu, Laura Di Marco, Alessandro Ehlert, Steven R. Forman, William Kim, Dawoon E. Kraft, Ralph Maksym, W. Peter Matt, Giorgio Poutanen, Juri Soffitta, Paolo Swartz, Douglas A. Agudo, Ivan Antonelli, Lucio Angelo Baldini, Luca Baumgartner, Wayne H. Bellazzini, Ronaldo Bianchi, Stefano Bongiorno, Stephen D. Bonino, Raffaella Brez, Alessandro Bucciantini, Niccolo Capitanio, Fiamma Castellano, Simone Cavazzuti, Elisabetta Ciprini, Stefano De Rosa, Alessandra Del Monte, Ettore Di Lalla, Niccolò Donnarumma, Immacolata Doroshenko, Victor Dovciak, Michal Enoto, Teruaki Evangelista, Yuri Fabiani, Sergio Garcia, Javier A. Gunji, Shuichi Hayashida, Kiyoshi Heyl, Jeremy Iwakiri, Wataru Jorstad, Svetlana G. Karas, Vladimir Kislat, Fabian Kitaguchi, Takao Krawczynski, Henric La Monaca, Fabio Latronico, Luca Liodakis, Ioannis Maldera, Simone Manfreda, Alberto Marscher, Alan P. Marshall, Herman L. Massaro, Francesco Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki Mizuno, Tsunefumi Muleri, Fabio Negro, Michela Ng, Chi-Yung O'Dell, Stephen L. Omodei, Nicola Oppedisano, Chiara Papitto, Alessandro Pavlov, George G. Peirson, Abel Lawrence Pesce-Rollins, Melissa Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier Pilia, Maura Possenti, Andrea Puccetti, Simonetta Ramsey, Brian D. Rankin, John Ratheesh, Ajay Roberts, Oliver J. Romani, Roger W. Sgro, Carmelo Slane, Patrick Spandre, Gloria Tamagawa, Toru Tavecchio, Fabrizio Taverna, Roberto Tawara, Yuzuru Tennant, Allyn F. Thomas, Nicholas E. Tombesi, Francesco Trois, Alessio Tsygankov, Sergey S. Turolla, Roberto Vink, Jacco Weisskopf, Martin C. Wu, Kinwah Xie, Fei Zane, Silvia
author_facet	Khabibullin, Ildar Churazov, Eugene Ferrazzoli, Riccardo Kaaret, Philip Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J. Marin, Frédéric Sunyaev, Rashid Svoboda, Jiri Vikhlinin, Alexey Barnouin, Thibault Chen, Chien-Ting Costa, Enrico Di Gesu, Laura Di Marco, Alessandro Ehlert, Steven R. Forman, William Kim, Dawoon E. Kraft, Ralph Maksym, W. Peter Matt, Giorgio Poutanen, Juri Soffitta, Paolo Swartz, Douglas A. Agudo, Ivan Antonelli, Lucio Angelo Baldini, Luca Baumgartner, Wayne H. Bellazzini, Ronaldo Bianchi, Stefano Bongiorno, Stephen D. Bonino, Raffaella Brez, Alessandro Bucciantini, Niccolo Capitanio, Fiamma Castellano, Simone Cavazzuti, Elisabetta Ciprini, Stefano De Rosa, Alessandra Del Monte, Ettore Di Lalla, Niccolò Donnarumma, Immacolata Doroshenko, Victor Dovciak, Michal Enoto, Teruaki Evangelista, Yuri Fabiani, Sergio Garcia, Javier A. Gunji, Shuichi Hayashida, Kiyoshi Heyl, Jeremy Iwakiri, Wataru Jorstad, Svetlana G. Karas, Vladimir Kislat, Fabian Kitaguchi, Takao Krawczynski, Henric La Monaca, Fabio Latronico, Luca Liodakis, Ioannis Maldera, Simone Manfreda, Alberto Marscher, Alan P. Marshall, Herman L. Massaro, Francesco Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki Mizuno, Tsunefumi Muleri, Fabio Negro, Michela Ng, Chi-Yung O'Dell, Stephen L. Omodei, Nicola Oppedisano, Chiara Papitto, Alessandro Pavlov, George G. Peirson, Abel Lawrence Pesce-Rollins, Melissa Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier Pilia, Maura Possenti, Andrea Puccetti, Simonetta Ramsey, Brian D. Rankin, John Ratheesh, Ajay Roberts, Oliver J. Romani, Roger W. Sgro, Carmelo Slane, Patrick Spandre, Gloria Tamagawa, Toru Tavecchio, Fabrizio Taverna, Roberto Tawara, Yuzuru Tennant, Allyn F. Thomas, Nicholas E. Tombesi, Francesco Trois, Alessio Tsygankov, Sergey S. Turolla, Roberto Vink, Jacco Weisskopf, Martin C. Wu, Kinwah Xie, Fei Zane, Silvia
contents	The extended X-ray emission observed in the direction of several molecular clouds in the central molecular zone of our Galaxy exhibits spectral and temporal properties consistent with the X-ray echo scenario. This concept postulates that the observed signal is a light-travel-time delayed reflection of a short ($δt<$1.5 yr) and bright ($L_{\rm X}>10^{39} {\rm erg s^{-1}}$) flare that was most probably produced a few hundred years ago by Sgr A. This scenario predicts a distinct polarization signature for the reflected X-ray continuum, with the polarization vector being perpendicular to the direction toward the primary source and the polarization degree being determined by the scattering angle. We report the results of two deep observations of the currently brightest (in reflected emission) molecular complex Sgr A taken with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer in 2022 and 2023. We confirm the previous polarization measurement for a large region encompassing the Sgr A complex with high significance. We reveal an inconsistent polarization pattern for the brightest reflection region in its center. The X-ray polarization from this region is almost perpendicular to the expected direction in the case of Sgr A illumination and shows smaller degree of polarization compared to the large region. This could indicate the simultaneous propagation of several illumination fronts throughout the CMZ, with the origin of one of them not being Sgr A*. The primary source could be associated with the Arches stellar cluster or a currently unknown source located closer to the illuminated cloud, potentially lowering the required luminosity of the primary source. Although significantly deeper observations with IXPE would be required to unequivocally distinguish between the scenarios, a combination of high-resolution imaging and micro-calorimetric spectroscopy offers an additional promising path forward.
format	Preprint
id	arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_04862
institution	arXiv
publishDate	2025
record_format	arxiv
spellingShingle	Polarization of reflected X-ray emission from the Sgr A molecular complex: multiple flares, multiple sources? Khabibullin, Ildar Churazov, Eugene Ferrazzoli, Riccardo Kaaret, Philip Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J. Marin, Frédéric Sunyaev, Rashid Svoboda, Jiri Vikhlinin, Alexey Barnouin, Thibault Chen, Chien-Ting Costa, Enrico Di Gesu, Laura Di Marco, Alessandro Ehlert, Steven R. Forman, William Kim, Dawoon E. Kraft, Ralph Maksym, W. Peter Matt, Giorgio Poutanen, Juri Soffitta, Paolo Swartz, Douglas A. Agudo, Ivan Antonelli, Lucio Angelo Baldini, Luca Baumgartner, Wayne H. Bellazzini, Ronaldo Bianchi, Stefano Bongiorno, Stephen D. Bonino, Raffaella Brez, Alessandro Bucciantini, Niccolo Capitanio, Fiamma Castellano, Simone Cavazzuti, Elisabetta Ciprini, Stefano De Rosa, Alessandra Del Monte, Ettore Di Lalla, Niccolò Donnarumma, Immacolata Doroshenko, Victor Dovciak, Michal Enoto, Teruaki Evangelista, Yuri Fabiani, Sergio Garcia, Javier A. Gunji, Shuichi Hayashida, Kiyoshi Heyl, Jeremy Iwakiri, Wataru Jorstad, Svetlana G. Karas, Vladimir Kislat, Fabian Kitaguchi, Takao Krawczynski, Henric La Monaca, Fabio Latronico, Luca Liodakis, Ioannis Maldera, Simone Manfreda, Alberto Marscher, Alan P. Marshall, Herman L. Massaro, Francesco Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki Mizuno, Tsunefumi Muleri, Fabio Negro, Michela Ng, Chi-Yung O'Dell, Stephen L. Omodei, Nicola Oppedisano, Chiara Papitto, Alessandro Pavlov, George G. Peirson, Abel Lawrence Pesce-Rollins, Melissa Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier Pilia, Maura Possenti, Andrea Puccetti, Simonetta Ramsey, Brian D. Rankin, John Ratheesh, Ajay Roberts, Oliver J. Romani, Roger W. Sgro, Carmelo Slane, Patrick Spandre, Gloria Tamagawa, Toru Tavecchio, Fabrizio Taverna, Roberto Tawara, Yuzuru Tennant, Allyn F. Thomas, Nicholas E. Tombesi, Francesco Trois, Alessio Tsygankov, Sergey S. Turolla, Roberto Vink, Jacco Weisskopf, Martin C. Wu, Kinwah Xie, Fei Zane, Silvia High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies The extended X-ray emission observed in the direction of several molecular clouds in the central molecular zone of our Galaxy exhibits spectral and temporal properties consistent with the X-ray echo scenario. This concept postulates that the observed signal is a light-travel-time delayed reflection of a short ($δt<$1.5 yr) and bright ($L_{\rm X}>10^{39} {\rm erg s^{-1}}$) flare that was most probably produced a few hundred years ago by Sgr A. This scenario predicts a distinct polarization signature for the reflected X-ray continuum, with the polarization vector being perpendicular to the direction toward the primary source and the polarization degree being determined by the scattering angle. We report the results of two deep observations of the currently brightest (in reflected emission) molecular complex Sgr A taken with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer in 2022 and 2023. We confirm the previous polarization measurement for a large region encompassing the Sgr A complex with high significance. We reveal an inconsistent polarization pattern for the brightest reflection region in its center. The X-ray polarization from this region is almost perpendicular to the expected direction in the case of Sgr A illumination and shows smaller degree of polarization compared to the large region. This could indicate the simultaneous propagation of several illumination fronts throughout the CMZ, with the origin of one of them not being Sgr A*. The primary source could be associated with the Arches stellar cluster or a currently unknown source located closer to the illuminated cloud, potentially lowering the required luminosity of the primary source. Although significantly deeper observations with IXPE would be required to unequivocally distinguish between the scenarios, a combination of high-resolution imaging and micro-calorimetric spectroscopy offers an additional promising path forward.
title	Polarization of reflected X-ray emission from the Sgr A molecular complex: multiple flares, multiple sources?
topic	High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04862