2008ApJ...673..915L

We report the detection of 10 new X-ray filaments using the data from the Chandra X-ray satellite for the inner 6' (∼15 pc) around the Galactic center (GC). All these X-ray filaments are characterized by nonthermal energy spectra, and most of them have pointlike features at their heads that point inward. Fitted with the simple absorbed power-law model, the measured X-ray flux from an individual filament in the 2-10 keV band is ∼2.8x10^–14 to 10^–13 ergs/cm2/s, and the absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity is ∼10³²-10³³ ergs/s at a presumed distance of 8 kpc to the GC. We speculate the origin(s) of these filaments by morphologies and by comparing their X-ray images with the corresponding radio and infrared images. On the basis of the combined information available, we suspect that these X-ray filaments might be pulsar wind nebulae associated with pulsars of ages 10³ to 3x10⁵ yr. The fact that most of the filament tails point outward may further suggest a high-velocity wind blowing away from the GC.