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Issue A&A
Volume 407, Number 3, September I 2003
Page(s) L55 - L58
Section Letters
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20031056



A&A 407, L55-L58 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20031056

Letter

Early SPI/INTEGRAL measurements of 511 keV line emission from the 4th quadrant of the Galaxy

P. Jean1, J. Knödlseder1, V. Lonjou1, M. Allain1, J.-P. Roques1, G. K. Skinner1, B. J. Teegarden1, 2, G. Vedrenne1, P. von Ballmoos1, B. Cordier3, P. Caraveo4, R. Diehl5, Ph. Durouchoux3, P. Mandrou1, J. Matteson6, N. Gehrels2, V. Schönfelder5, A. W. Strong5, P. Ubertini7, G. Weidenspointner1, 2 and C. Winkler8

1  CESR, CNRS/UPS, BP 4346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
2  LHEA, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
3  DSM/DAPNIA/SAp, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
4  IFC, CNR "G. Occhialini", Via Bassini 15, 20133 Milan, Italy
5  MPI für Extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1603, 85740 Garching, Germany
6  CASS, UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
7  IAS, CNR, Via del Fosso de Cavaliere, 00133 Roma, Italy
8  ESA-ESTEC, RSSD, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands

(Received 11 June 2003 / Accepted 3 July 2003 )

Abstract
We report the first measurements of the 511 keV line emission from the Galactic Centre (GC) region performed with the spectrometer SPI on the space observatory INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory). Taking into account the range of spatial distribution models which are consistent with the data, we derive a flux of $9.9^{+4.7}_{-2.1} \times 10^{-4}$ ph cm -2 s -1 and an intrinsic line width of 2.95+0.45-0.51 keV ( FWHM). The results are consistent with other high-spectroscopy measurements, though the width is found to be at the upper bound of previously reported values.


Key words: gamma rays: observations -- line: profiles -- Galaxy: center

Offprint request: Pierre Jean, jean@cesr.fr

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© ESO 2003


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