CCAPP Seminar: Kerstin Perez (MIT) "High-energy X-rays from the Galactic Center: "zombie stars" and particle physics"

Oval
April 11, 2017
11:30AM - 12:30PM
PRB 4138

Date Range
2017-04-11 11:30:00 2017-04-11 12:30:00 CCAPP Seminar: Kerstin Perez (MIT) "High-energy X-rays from the Galactic Center: "zombie stars" and particle physics" The inner parsecs of the Galaxy contain one of the highest concentrations of both high-energy sources and dark matter in the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole, pulsar wind nebulae, supernova remnants, X-ray binaries, and hot interstellar gas are copious emitters of X-rays and gamma-rays. In addition, this region contains a large density of dark matter, making it an important source of both dark matter interaction signatures and backgrounds to dark matter searches. NuSTAR provides a view of the hard X-ray (3-79 keV) band, a critical bridge between the soft X-ray and gamma-ray emission, with unprecedented angular resolution. I will present the first sub-parsec scale images of the Galactic Center in hard X-rays, obtained with NuSTAR, which offer leading constraints on the radiative decay of dark matter, in particular from sterile neutrinos, as well as new insight into the "zombie star" population that underlies this emission. PRB 4138 America/New_York public

The inner parsecs of the Galaxy contain one of the highest concentrations of both high-energy sources and dark matter in the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole, pulsar wind nebulae, supernova remnants, X-ray binaries, and hot interstellar gas are copious emitters of X-rays and gamma-rays. In addition, this region contains a large density of dark matter, making it an important source of both dark matter interaction signatures and backgrounds to dark matter searches. NuSTAR provides a view of the hard X-ray (3-79 keV) band, a critical bridge between the soft X-ray and gamma-ray emission, with unprecedented angular resolution. I will present the first sub-parsec scale images of the Galactic Center in hard X-rays, obtained with NuSTAR, which offer leading constraints on the radiative decay of dark matter, in particular from sterile neutrinos, as well as new insight into the "zombie star" population that underlies this emission.

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