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The origin of the Galactic center diffuse X-ray emission (GCDX) is stillunder intense investigation. In particular, the interpretation of the hot (kT ~7 keV) component of the GCDX, characterised by the strong Fe 6.7 keV lineemission, has been contentious. If the hot component originates from a trulydiffuse interstellar plasma, not a collection of unresolved point sources, suchplasma cannot be gravitationally bound, and its regeneration would require ahuge amount of energy. Here we show that the spatial distribution of the GCDXdoes NOT correlate with the number density distribution of an old stellarpopulation traced by near-infrared light, strongly suggesting a significantcontribution of the diffuse interstellar plasma. Contributions of the oldstellar population to the GCDX are implied to be about 50 % and 20 % in theNuclear stellar disk and Nuclear star cluster, respectively. For the Nuclearstellar disk, a scale height of 0.32 +- 0.02 deg is obtained for the first timefrom the stellar number density profiles. We also show the results of theextended near-infrared polarimetric observations in the central 3 deg * 2 degregion of our Galaxy, and confirm that the GCDX region is permeated by a largescale, toroidal magnetic field as previously claimed. Together with observedmagnetic field strengths close to energy equipartition, the hot plasma could bemagnetically confined, reducing the amount of energy required to sustain it.

Magnetically Confined Interstellar Hot Plasma in the Nuclear Bulge of our Galaxy