Shadowing by the Magellanic Bridge: the origin of the 3/4 keV background

GTThe high Galactic latitude 3/4 keV background consists of both extragalactic and Galactic emission with uncertain relative contributions. The spectrum at3/4 keV shows an excess over the extrapolation of the extragalactic power lawobserved at higher energies, and this excess has been attributed to emissionfrom sources as varied as a Galactic halo, the Local Group, diffuse cosmological emission, and a bump in the spectra of discrete cosmological sources. By studying the shadow of an NH enhancement in the Magellanic Bridge, the observed flux can be separated into foreground and background components, which will place clear constraints on a number of models both Galactic and cosmological. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]