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The nonthermal filament (NTF) radio structures clustered within a few hundred parsecs of the Galactic center (GC) are apparently unique to this region of the Galaxy. Recent radio images of the GC using MeerKAT at 1 GHz have revealed a multitude of faint, previously unknown NTF bundles (NTFBs), some of which are comprised of as many as 10 or more individual filaments. In this work we present Very Large Array observations at theC- andX-bands (4–12 GHz) at arcsecond-scale resolutions of three of these newly discovered NTFBs, all located at southern Galactic latitudes. These observations allow us to compare their total-intensity properties with those of the larger NTF population. We find that these targets generally possess properties similar to what is observed in the larger NTF population. However, the larger NTF population generally has steeper spectral indices than what we observe for our chosen targets. The results presented here based on the total-intensity properties of these structures indicate that the NTFs are likely a result of synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons that have been generated either by a nearby compact source or by extended magnetic field structures in which the magnetic field line reconnection has accelerated the electrons. In eithermore »scenario, once the relativistic electrons are produced and injected locally into the field they diffuse along the magnetic field lines, producing the filaments.

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We report the first star formation history study of the Milky Ways nuclear star cluster (NSC), which includes observational constraints from a large sample of stellar metallicity measurements. These metallicity measurements were obtained from recent surveys from Gemini and the Very Large Telescope of 770 late-type stars within the central 1.5 pc. These metallicity measurements, along with photometry and spectroscopically derived temperatures, are forward modeled with a Bayesian inference approach. Including metallicity measurements improves the overall fit quality, as the low-temperature red giants that were previously difficult to constrain are now accounted for, and the best fit favors a two-component model. The dominant component contains 93% ± 3% of the mass, is metal-rich ($\overline{[\mathrm{M}/\mathrm{H}]}\sim 0.45$), and has an age of$5_{-2}^{+3}$Gyr, which is ∼3 Gyr younger than earlier studies with fixed (solar) metallicity; this younger age challenges coevolutionary models in which the NSC and supermassive black holes formed simultaneously at early times. The minor population component has low metallicity ($\overline{[\mathrm{M}/\mathrm{H}]}\sim -1.1$) and contains ∼7% of the stellar mass. The age of the minor component is uncertain (0.1–5 Gyr old).more »Using the estimated parameters, we infer the following NSC stellar remnant population (with ∼18% uncertainty): 1.5 × 10⁵neutron stars, 2.5 × 10⁵stellar-mass black holes (BHs), and 2.2 × 10⁴BH–BH binaries. These predictions result in 2–4 times fewer neutron stars compared to earlier predictions that assume solar metallicity, introducing a possible new path to understand the so-called “missing-pulsar problem”. Finally, we present updated predictions for the BH–BH merger rates (0.01–3 Gpc⁻³yr⁻¹).

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Abstract We present high-resolution (∼2–3″; ∼0.1 pc) radio observations of the Galactic center cloud M0.10−0.08 using the Very Large Array at K and Ka band (∼25 and 36 GHz). The M0.10−0.08 cloud is located in a complex environment near the Galactic center Radio Arc and the adjacent M0.11−0.11 molecular cloud. From our data, M0.10−0.08 appears to be a compact molecular cloud (∼3 pc) that contains multiple compact molecular cores (5+; <0.4 pc). In this study, we detect a total of 15 molecular transitions in M0.10−0.08 from the following molecules: NH 3 , HC 3 N, CH 3 OH, HC 5 N, CH 3 CN, and OCS. We have identified more than sixty 36 GHz CH 3 OH masers in M0.10−0.08 with brightness temperatures above 400 K and 31 maser candidates with temperatures between 100 and 400 K. We conduct a kinematic analysis of the gas using NH 3 and detect multiple velocity components toward this region of the Galactic center. The bulk of the gas in this region has a velocity of 51.5 km s −1 (M0.10−0.08) with a lower-velocity wing at 37.6 km s −1 . We also detect a relatively faint velocity component at 10.6 km s −1more »that we attribute to being an extension of the M0.11−0.11 cloud. Analysis of the gas kinematics, combined with past X-ray fluorescence observations, suggests M0.10−0.08 and M0.11−0.11 are located in the same vicinity of the Galactic center and could be physically interacting.« less

Abstract The Radio Arc is a system of organized nonthermal filaments (NTFs) located within the Galactic center (GC) region of the Milky Way. Recent observations of the Radio Arc NTFs revealed a magnetic field that alternates between being parallel and rotated with respect to the orientation of the filaments. This pattern is in stark contrast to the predominantly parallel magnetic field orientations observed in other GC NTFs. To help elucidate the origin of this pattern, we analyze spectro-polarimetric data of the Radio Arc NTFs using an Australian Telescope Compact Array data set covering the continuous frequency range from ∼4 to 11 GHz at a spectral resolution of 2 MHz. We fit depolarization models to the spectral polarization data to characterize Faraday effects along the line of sight. We assess whether structures local to the Radio Arc NTFs may contribute to the unusual magnetic field orientation. External Faraday effects are identified as the most likely origin of the rotation observed for the Radio Arc NTFs; however, internal Faraday effects are also found to be likely in regions of parallel magnetic field. The increased likelihood of internal Faraday effects in parallel magnetic field regions may be attributed to the effects of structuresmore »local to the GC. One such structure could be the Radio Shell local to the Radio Arc NTFs. Future studies are needed to determine whether this alternating magnetic field pattern is present in other multi-stranded NTFs, or is a unique property resulting from the complex interstellar region local to the Radio Arc NTFs.« less