The Consequences of the Interaction of Cosmic Rays with Galactic Center Molecular Clouds

Abstract

We consider that the diffuse GeV, TeV and the FeI 6.4keV line emission from the inner 20 ×10 of the Galactic center, as observed with Fermi, HESS, Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku, results from the interaction of cosmic ray electrons with the neutral gas and that the emission can be explained in the context of nonthermal bremsstrahlung mechanism. Synchrotron radio emission from this region is measured from multi-frequency radio continuum observations of the Galactic center using the Green Bank Telescope. The interaction of low energy cosmic ray electrons with the gas in the Galactic center infer high values of cosmic ray ionization, heating rates as well as strong FeI Kα line emission at 6.4keV. The high energy tail of cosmic ray particles interacting with neutral gas produces nonthermal bremsstrahlung emission at GeV γ-rays. The spectrum of diffuse γ-ray emission detected by Fermi reflects the energy distribution of electrons producing radio synchrotron emission from the Galactic center.