The Galactic Centers giant outflows are manifest in three different, non-thermal phenomena: i) the hard-spectrum, gamma-ray `Fermi Bubbles emanating from the nucleus and extending to |b| ~ 50 degrees; ii) the hard-spectrum, total-intensity microwave
(~ 20-40 GHz) `Haze extending to |b| ~ 35 degrees in the lower reaches of the Fermi Bubbles; and iii) the steep spectrum, polarized, `S-PASS radio (~ 2-20 GHz) Lobes that envelop the Bubbles and extend to |b| ~ 60 degrees. We find that the nuclear outflows inflate a genuine bubble in each Galactic hemisphere that has the classical structure, working outwards, of reverse shock, contact discontinuity, and forward shock. Expanding into the finite pressure of the halo and given appreciable cooling and gravitational losses, the contact discontinuity of each bubble is now expanding only very slowly. We find observational signatures in both hemispheres of giant, reverse shocks at heights of ~ 1 kpc above the nucleus; their presence ultimately explains all three of the non-thermal phenomena mentioned above. Synchrotron emission from shock-reaccelerated cosmic-ray electrons explains the spectrum, morphology, and vertical extent of the microwave Haze and the polarized radio Lobes. Collisions between shock-reaccelerated hadrons and denser gas in cooling condensations that form inside the contact discontinuity account for most of the Bubbles gamma-ray emissivity.
The Fermi Bubbles are enigmatic gamma-ray features of the Galactic bulge. Both putative activity (within $sim$ few $times$ Myr) connected to the Galactic center super-massive black hole and, alternatively, nuclear star formation have been claimed as
the energising source of the Bubbles. Likewise, both inverse-Compton emission by non-thermal electrons (`leptonic models) and collisions between non-thermal protons and gas (`hadronic models) have been advanced as the process supplying the Bubbles gamma -ray emission. An issue for any steady state hadronic model is that the very low density of the Bubbles plasma seems to require that they accumulate protons over a multi-Gyr timescale, much longer than other natural timescales occurring in the problem. Here we present a hadronic model where the timescale for generating the Bubbles hadronic gamma -ray emission is $sim$ few $times 10^8$ years. Our model invokes collapse of the Bubbles thermally-unstable plasma, leading to an accumulation of cosmic rays and magnetic field into localised, warm ($sim 10^4$ K), and likely filamentary condensations of higher density gas. Under the condition that these filaments are supported by non-thermal pressure, we can predict the hadronic emission from the Bubbles to be $L_gamma simeq 2 times 10^{37}$ erg/s $ dot{M}_mathrm{in}/(0.1 M_{Sun}/$ year $) T_mathrm{FB}^2/(3.5 times 10^7 K) ^2 M_{fil}/M_{pls}$ ; precisely their observed luminosity (normalizing to the star-formation-driven mass flux into the Bubbles and their measured plasma temperature and adopting the further result that the mass in the filaments, $M_{fil}$ is approximately equal to that of the Bubbles plasma, $M_{pls}$).
It is widely accepted that quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion of matter onto a central supermassive black hole. While numerical simulations have demonstrated the importance of magnetic fields in generating the tur
bulence believed necessary for accretion, so far they have not produced the high mass accretion rates required to explain the most powerful sources. We describe new global 3D simulations we are developing to assess the importance of radiation and non-ideal MHD in generating magnetized outflows that can enhance the overall rates of angular momentum transport and mass accretion.
