Gamma-ray binaries : pulsars in disguise?
By G. Dubus. 2006
235 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Context. LS 5039 and LS I+61°303 are unique amongst high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXB) for their spatially-resolved radio emission and their counterpart at >GeV gamma-ray energies, canonically attributed to non-thermal particles in an accretion-powered relativistic jet. The only other HMXB known to emit very high-energy (VHE) gamma-rays, PSR B1259-63, harbours a non-accreting millisecond pulsar. Aims. The purpose is to investigate whether the interaction of the relativistic wind from a young pulsar with the wind from its stellar companion, as in PSR B1259-63, constitutes a viable scenario for explaining the observations of LS 5039 and LS I+61°303. Emission arises from the shocked pulsar wind material, which then flows away to large distances in a comet-shape tail, reproducing on a smaller scale what is observed in isolated, high motion pulsars interacting with the interstellar medium. Methods. The timescales for acceleration and radiation of particles at the shock between the pulsar wind and stellar wind are calculated. Simple expectations for the spectral energy distribution (SED) are derived and are shown to depend on very few input parameters. Detailed modelling of the particle evolution is attempted and compared to the observations from radio to TeV energies. Results. Acceleration at the shock provides high-energy electrons that steadily emit synchrotron in X-rays and inverse Compton scatter stellar light to γ -rays. Electrons streaming out of the system emit at IR frequencies and below. The overall aspect of the SEDs is adequately reproduced for standard values of the parameters. The morphology of the radio tail can mimic a microquasar jet. Good agreement is found with the published VLBI map of LS 5039 and predictions are made on the expected change in appearance with orbital phase. Conclusions. The pulsar wind scenario provides a common, viable framework for interpreting the emission from all three γ -ray binaries.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2eb50ff950841fdfd0686952d1ec82cc3d7e4870
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Citations in the corpus
- Be/X-ray binaries (2011, background): “In the pulsar wind scenario the resolved radio emission is not due to a relativistic jet akin to those of microquasars, but arises instead from shocked pulsar wind material outflowing from the binary (Dubus 2006).”
- FERMI LAT OBSERVATIONS OF LS I +61°303: FIRST DETECTION OF AN ORBITAL MODULATION IN GeV GAMMA RAYS (2009, background): “…the orbit and/or because of the greater photon density at periastron), or due to a varying maximum energy for accelerated electrons or to pair production on stellar photons f r gamma rays above≈50 GeV (Dubus 2006; Sidoli et al. 2006; Cerutti, Dubus, & Henri 2008; Sierpowska-Bartosik & Torres 2009).”
- VERITAS Observations of the γ-Ray Binary LS I +61 303 (2008, background): “The distance of the pulsar wind termination shock changes with orbital motion (Dubus 2006).”
- Gamma-ray binaries and related systems (2013, methodology): “From top to bottom: spectral energy distribution adapted from Dubus (2006b); X-ray modulation (reproduced by permission of the AAS from Kishishita et al. 2009); GeV modulation (reproduced by permission of the AAS from Fermi/LAT collaboration et al. 2009b); TeV modulation (reproduced with permission…”
- 3.9 day orbital modulation in the TeV gamma-ray flux and spectrum from the X-ray binary LS 5039 (2006, background): “The level of absorption therefore depends on alignment between the VHE γ-ray production region, the star, and the observer, leading to orbital modulation of the VHE γ-ray flux (Protheroe and Stanev 1987, Moskalenko 1995, Böttcher and Dermer 2005, Dubus 2006a).”