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.
I review our current state of knowledge about non-thermal radiation from the Galactic Centre (GC) and Inner Galaxy. Definitionally, the Galactic nucleus is at the bottom of the Galaxys gravitational well, rendering it a promising region to seek the s
ignatures of dark matter decay or annihilation. It also hosts, however, the Milky Ways resident supermassive black hole and up to 10% of current massive star formation in the Galaxy. Thus the Galactic nucleus is a dynamic and highly-energized environment implying that extreme caution must be exercised in interpreting any unusual or unexpected signal from (or emerging from) the region as evidence for dark matter-related processes. One spectacular example of an `unexpected signal is the discovery within the last few years of the `Fermi Bubbles and, subsequently, their polarised radio counterparts. These giant lobes extend ~7 kpc from the nucleus into both north and south Galactic hemispheres. Hard-spectrum, microwave emission coincident with the lower reaches of the Bubbles has also been detected, first in WMAP, and more recently in Planck data. Debate continues as to the origin of the Bubbles and their multi-wavelength emissions: are they the signatures of relatively recent (in the last ~Myr) activity of the supermassive black hole or, alternatively, nuclear star formation? I will briefly review evidence that points to the latter interpretation.
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, $M_{pls}$).
The Galactic centre - as the closest galactic nucleus - holds both intrinsic interest and possibly represents a useful analogue to star-burst nuclei which we can observe with orders of magnitude finer detail than these external systems. The environme
ntal conditions in the GC - here taken to mean the inner 200 pc in diameter of the Milky Way - are extreme with respect to those typically encountered in the Galactic disk. The energy densities of the various GC ISM components are typically ~two orders of magnitude larger than those found locally and the star-formation rate density ~three orders of magnitude larger. Unusually within the Galaxy, the Galactic centre exhibits hard-spectrum, diffuse TeV (=10^12 eV) gamma-ray emission spatially coincident with the regions molecular gas. Recently the nuclei of local star-burst galaxies NGC 253 and M82 have also been detected in gamma-rays of such energies. We have embarked on an extended campaign of modelling the broadband (radio continuum to TeV gamma-ray), non- thermal signals received from the inner 200 pc of the Galaxy. On the basis of this modelling we find that star-formation and associated supernova activity is the ultimate driver of the regions non-thermal activity. This activity drives a large-scale wind of hot plasma and cosmic rays out of the GC. The wind advects the locally-accelerated cosmic rays quickly, before they can lose much energy in situ or penetrate into the densest molecular gas cores where star-formation occurs. The cosmic rays can, however, heat/ionize the lower density/warm H2 phase enveloping the cores. On very large scales (~10 kpc) the non-thermal signature of the escaping GC cosmic rays has probably been detected recently as the spectacular Fermi bubbles and corresponding WMAP haze.
The next generation of neutrino and gamma-ray detectors should provide new insights into the creation and propagation of high-energy protons within galaxy clusters, probing both the particle physics of cosmic rays interacting with the background medi
um and the mechanisms for high-energy particle production within the cluster. In this paper we examine the possible detection of gamma-rays (via the GLAST satellite) and neutrinos (via the ICECUBE and Auger experiments) from the Coma cluster of galaxies, as well as for the gamma-ray bright clusters Abell 85, 1758, and 1914. These three were selected from their possible association with unidentified EGRET sources, so it is not yet entirely certain that their gamma-rays are indeed produced diffusively within the intracluster medium, as opposed to AGNs. It is not obvious why these inconspicuous Abell-clusters should be the first to be seen in gamma-rays, but a possible reason is that all of them show direct evidence of recent or ongoing mergers. Their identification with the EGRET gamma-ray sources is also supported by the close correlation between their radio and (purported) gamma-ray fluxes. Under favorable conditions (including a proton spectral index of 2.5 in the case of Abell 85, and sim 2.3 for Coma, and Abell 1758 and 1914), we expect ICECUBE to make as many as 0.3 neutrino detections per year from the Coma cluster of galaxies, and as many as a few per year from the Abell clusters 85, 1758, and 1914. Also, Auger may detect as many as 2 events per decade at ~ EeV energies from these gamma-ray bright clusters.
A point-like source of ~TeV gamma-rays has recently been seen towards the Galactic center by HESS and other air Cerenkov telescopes. In recent work (Ballantyne et al. 2007), we demonstrated that these gamma-rays can be attributed to high-energy proto
ns that (i) are accelerated close to the event horizon of the central black hole, Sgr A*, (ii) diffuse out to ~pc scales, and (iii) finally interact to produce gamma-rays. The same hadronic collision processes will necessarily lead to the creation of electrons and positrons. Here we calculate the synchrotron emissivity of these secondary leptons in the same magnetic field configuration through which the initiating protons have been propagated in our model. We compare this emission with the observed ~GHz radio spectrum of the inner few pc region which we have assembled from archival data and new measurements we have made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We find that our model predicts secondary synchrotron emission with a steep slope consistent with the observations but with an overall normalization that is too large by a factor of ~ 2. If we further constrain our theoretical gamma-ray curve to obey the implicit EGRET upper limit on emission from this region we predict radio emission that is consistent with observations, i.e., the hadronic model of gamma ray emission can, simultaneously and without fine-tuning, also explain essentially all the diffuse radio emission detected from the inner few pc of the Galaxy.
