The Origin of the Galactic Center Nonthermal Radio Filaments: Young Stellar Clusters

The unusual class of magnetized nonthermal radio filaments (NTF), threads andstreaks with their unique physical characteristics are found only within theinner couple of degrees of the Galactic center. Also, a number of young,mass-losing and rare stellar clusters are recognized to lie in the Galacticcenter region. The latter characteristic of the Galactic center region is usedto explain the origin of the nonthermal radio filaments. We consider amechanism in which the collective winds of massive WR and OB stars within adense stellar environment produce shock waves that can accelerate particles torelativistic energies. This mechanism is an extension of a model originallyproposed by Rosner and Bodo (1996), who suggested that energetic nonthermalparticles are produced in a terminal shock of mass-losing stars. Thelarge-scale distribution of the magnetic field in the context of this model isargued to have neither poloidal geometry nor pervasive throughout the Galacticcenter region.Comment: 24 pages, one figure, ApJ (in press