Hard X-ray emission from the Galactic ridge

We present results of a study of the Galactic ridge X-ray emission (GRXE) in hard X-rays performed with the IBIS telescope aboard INTEGRAL. The imaging capabilities of this coding aperture telescope make it possible to account for the flux from bright Galactic point sources whereas the wide field of view permits us to collect large flux from the underlying GRXE. Extensive study of the IBIS/ISGRI detector background allowed us to construct a model that predicts the detector count rate with similar to 1-2% accuracy in the energy band 17-60 keV. The derived longitude and latitude profiles of the ridge emission are in good agreement with the Galactic distribution of stars obtained from infrared observations. This, along with the measured hard X-ray spectrum of the Galactic ridge emission strongly indicates its stellar origin. The derived unit stellar mass emissivity of the ridge in the energy band 17-60 keV, (0.9-1.2) x 10(27) erg s(-1) M-circle dot(-1) (assuming a bulge mass of 1-1.3 x 10(10) M-circle dot), agrees with that of local (in the Solar neigborhood) accreting magnetic white dwarf binaries - dominant contributors to the GRXE at these energies. In addition, the shape of the obtained GRXE spectrum can be used to determine the average mass of white dwarfs in such systems in the Galaxy as similar to 0.5 M-circle dot. The total hard X-ray luminosity of the GRXE is L17-60 (keV) = (3.7 +/- 0.2) x 10(37) erg s(-1) in the 17 - 60 keV band. At energies 70 - 200 keV no additional contribution to the total emission of the Galaxy apart from the detected point sources is seen.