Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission Toward the Galactic Center

Simona Murgia
Troy Porter, Fermi LAT Collaboration

Abstract:

The inner region of the Milky Way is one of the most interesting and complex regions of the gamma-ray sky. The intense interstellar emission and resolved point sources, as well as potential contributions by other sources such as unresolved source populations and dark matter, complicate the interpretation of the data. In this talk, we report on the Fermi-LAT team analysis of a 15x15 degree region around the direction of the Galactic center. We describe our methodology for point-source detection and treatment of the interstellar emission. In general, the gamma-ray emission is well described by a combination of these two contributions. However, low-intensity residual emission remains and we will discuss its characterization.