In a paper about to be published in Nature,
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/...904.4649v1.pdf , Revnivtsev
et al have definitively demonstrated that the "diffuse" galactic X-ray
ridge is produced by discrete stellar-mass objects.

The authors speculate that the discrete sources, which have X-ray
luminosities in the 10^29 - 10^30 erg/sec range, may be accreting
white dwarf stars or coronally active stars.

Another possibility was predicted in 1987 [Oldershaw, R.L.,
Astrophysical Journal, 322, 34-36, 1987]. Discrete Scale Relativity
predicted that the galactic dark matter is primarily in the form of
Kerr-Newman black holes with masses of either 0.145 solar masses or
0.58 solar masses.

It was predicted in the ApJ paper that the members of this population
that reside in the galactic disk would emit accretion-generated X-rays
at luminosities of about 10^29 erg/sec to 10^30 erg/sec.

Is there a way to decide whether the discrete galactic X-ray ridge
sources are the more conventional accreting white dwarfs/coronally
active stars, or whether this population is comprised of the more
unconventional population of Kerr-Newman black holes? Happily there is
a definitive test. White dwarfs and coronally active stars would not
be expected to generate much Gamma-ray radiation, but the Kerr-Newman
population would. Possibly the Fermi Gamma-ray telescope has the
capability to sort this out. If the discrete galactic ridge X-ray
sources are Gamma-ray emitters, then a new and almost completely
unexpected stellar population will be revealed

The proposed Kerr-Newman black hole population should be even more
abundant in the galactic halo, where their accretion-generated X-ray
luminosities were predicted to be more in the 10^26 erg/sec to 10^27
erg/sec range. A fairly isotropic high latitude Gamma-ray emission
from the galactic halo might be a signature of the predicted
population of black holes.

The Kerr-Newman Black holes would also offer an empirically consistent
explanation for the MACHO microlensing results, and they offer a
viable candidate for the enigmatic galactic dark matter that has
eluded explanation for so long.

Yours in science,
Robert L. Oldershaw