Episodic Transient Gamma-Ray Emission from the Microquasar Cygnus X-1
S. Sabatini, M. Tavani, E. Striani, A. Bulgarelli, V. Vittorini, G. Piano, E. Del Monte, M. Feroci, F. de Pasquale, M. Trifoglio, F. Gianotti, A. Argan, G. Barb… 展开作者
S. Sabatini, M. Tavani, E. Striani, A. Bulgarelli, V. Vittorini, G. Piano, E. Del Monte, M. Feroci, F. de Pasquale, M. Trifoglio, F. Gianotti, A. Argan, G. Barbiellini, P. Caraveo, P. W. Cattaneo, A. W. Chen, F. D'Ammando, E. Costa, G. De Paris, G. Di Cocco, I. Donnarumma, Y. Evangelista, A. Ferrari, M. Fiorini, F. Fuschino, M. Galli, A. Giuliani, M. Giusti, C. Labanti, F. Lazzarotto, P. Lipari, F. Longo, M. Marisaldi, S. Mereghetti, E. Morelli, E. Moretti, A. Morselli, L. Pacciani, A. Pellizzoni, F. Perotti, P. Picozza, M. Pilia, G. Pucella, M. Prest, M. Rapisarda, A. Rappoldi, A. Rubini, E. Scalise, P. Soffitta, A. Trois, E. Vallazza, S. Vercellone, A. Zambra, D. Zanello, C. Pittori, F. Verrecchia, P. Santolamazza, P. Giommi, S. Colafrancesco, L. A. Antonelli, L. Salotti
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Accepted for publication by ApJ on the 9th of Feb 2010, 5 pages, 3 figures
Cygnus X-1 is the archetypal black hole (BH) binary system in our Galaxy. We report the main results of an extensive search for transient gamma-ray emission from Cygnus X-1 carried out in the energy range 100 MeV - 3 GeV by the AGILE satellite, during the period 2007 July - 2009 October. The total exposure time is about 300 days, during which the source was in the "hard" X-ray spectral state. We divided the observing intervals in 2 or 4 week periods, and searched for transient and persistent emission. We report an episode of significant transient gamma-ray emission detected on 2009, October 16 in a position compatible with Cygnus X-1 optical position. This episode, occurred during a hard spectral state of Cygnus X-1, shows that a 1-2 day time variable emission above 100 MeV can be produced during hard spectral states, having important theoretical implications for current Comptonization models for Cygnus X-1 and other microquasars. Except for this one short timescale episode, no significant gamma-ray emission was detected by AGILE. By integrating all available data we obtain a 2$σ$ upper limit for the total integrated flux of $F_{γ,U.L.} = 3 \times 10^{-8} \rm ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ in the energy range 100 MeV - 3 GeV. We then clearly establish the existence of a spectral cutoff in the energy range 1-100 MeV that applies to the typical hard state outside the flaring period and that confirms the historically known spectral cutoff above 1 MeV.
Gamma-ray observations of microquasars at high and very-high energies can provide valuable information of the acceleration processes inside the jets, the jet-environment interaction and the disk-jet coupling. Two high-mass microquasars have been deeply studied to shed light on these aspects: Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-3. Both systems display the canonical hard and soft X-ray spectral states of black hole transients, where the radiation is dominated by non-thermal emission from the corona and jets and by thermal emission from the disk, respectively. Here, we report on the detection of Cygnus X-1 a…
Microquasar Cygnus X-3 as the PeVatron powering the Cygnus Bubble
University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Yerevan State University（埃里温国立大学）；TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）；Max-Planck-Institut for Nuclear Physics（马克斯·普朗克核物理研究所）
Microquasars are binary systems consisting of a compact object and a star that present relativistic jets. When the companion is a high-mass star, significant interaction between the stellar wind and the jets is expected. In this work, an overview of the different effects that a strong stellar wind may have in microquasar jets is given. Both analytical estimates and numerical simulations performed in the last years are reviewed. The results of a model for the non-thermal emission of such jets at large scales are also shown and discussed. Observational studies of two high-mass microquasars, Cygn…
Context. Relativistic jets are ubiquitous in astrophysics. High Mass Microquasars (HMMQs) are useful labs to study such jets, as they are relatively close and evolve over observable time scales. The ambient medium into which the jet propagates is, however, far from homogeneous. Corresponding simulation studies to date consider various forms of a wind-shaped ambient medium but typically neglect radiative cooling and relativistic effects. Aims. We investigate the dynamical and structural effects of radiative losses and system parameters on relativistic jets in HMMQs, from the jet launch to its p…
The X-ray spectra of X-ray binaries are dominated by emission of either soft or hard X-rays which defines their soft and hard spectral states. Cygnus X-3 is amongst the list of X-ray binaries that show quite complex behavior, with various distinct spectral states. Because of its softness and intrinsic low flux above typically 50 keV, very little is known about the hard X/soft gamma-ray (100-1000 keV) emission in Cygnus X-3. Using the whole INTEGRAL data base, we aim to explore the 3-1000 keV spectra of Cygnus X-3. This allows to probe this region with the highest sensitivity ever, and search f…
Recent studies have indicated that cosmic ray acceleration by a first-order Fermi process in magnetic reconnection current sheets can be efficient enough in the surrounds of compact sources. In this work, we discuss this acceleration mechanism operating in the core region of galactic black hole binaries (or microquasars) and show the conditions under which this can be more efficient than shock acceleration. In addition, we compare the corresponding acceleration rate with the relevant radiative loss rates obtaining the possible energy cut-off of the accelerated particles and also compute the ex…
0.1-10 MeV observations of the black hole microquasar Cygnus X-1 have shown the presence of a spectral feature in the form of a power law in addition to the standard black body and Comptonization components observed by INTEGRAL. This so-called "high-energy tail" has recently been shown to be strong in its hard spectral state and interpreted as high-energy part of the emission from a compact jet. This result was, however, obtained from a data set dominated by hard state observations. In the soft state, only upper limits on the presence and hence the potential parameters of a high-energy tail co…
A Multi-messenger Search for a Nearby Microquasar Contributor to the Cosmic Ray Knee
School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University（西南交通大学物理科学与技术学院）；State Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所粒子天体物理国家重点实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）
We present a search for Galactic transient gamma-ray sources using 13 years of the Fermi Large Area Telescope data. The search is based on a recently developed variable-size sliding-time-window (VSSTW) analysis and aimed at studying variable gamma-ray emission from binary systems, including novae, gamma-ray binaries, and microquasars. Compared to the previous search for transient sources at random positions in the sky with 11.5 years of data, we included gamma rays with energies down to 500 MeV, increased a number of test positions, and extended the data set by adding data collected between Fe…
Jets powered by high-mass X-ray binaries must traverse the powerful wind of the companion star. We present the first global 3D simulations of jet-wind interaction in high-mass X-ray binaries. We show that the wind momentum flux intercepted by the jet can lead to significant bending of the jet and that jets propagating through a spherical wind will be bent to an asymptotic angle $ψ_{\infty}$. We derive simple expressions for $ψ_{\infty}$ as a function of jet power and wind thrust. For known wind parameters, measurements of $ψ_{\infty}$ can be used to constrain the jet power. In the case of Cygn…
We utilize the joint capabilities of IBIS and SPI to perform a state-resolved 20--2000\,keV analysis of the microquasar Cygnus X-1. In both LHS and HSS, the spectral analysis reveals the presence of a high-energy tail above 400\,keV in addition to a standard, Compton-like continuum in the 20--400\,keV range. We study the polarisation properties of the hard X-ray radiation, as well as of the polarisation of this high-energy tail. Polarisation is detected in the LHS in agreement with previous work. We find potential variations of the LHS polarisation with time and no polarisation detection in th…
The microquasar Cygnus X-1 displays the two typical soft and hard X-ray states of a black-hole transient. During the latter, Cygnus X-1 shows a one-sided relativistic radio-jet. Recent detection of the system in the high energy (HE; $E\gtrsim60$ MeV) gamma-ray range with \textit{Fermi}-LAT associates this emission with the outflow. Former MAGIC observations revealed a hint of flaring activity in the very high-energy (VHE; $E\gtrsim100$ GeV) regime during this X-ray state. We analyze $\sim97$ hr of Cygnus X-1 data taken with the MAGIC telescopes between July 2007 and October 2014. To shed light…
Several active galactic nuclei and microquasars are observed to eject plasmoids that move at relativistic speeds. We envisage the plasmoids as pre-existing current carrying magnetic flux ropes that were initially anchored in the accretion disk-corona. The plasmoids are ejected outwards via a mechanism called the toroidal instability (TI). The TI, which was originally explored in the context of laboratory tokamak plasmas, has been very successful in explaining coronal mass ejections from the Sun. Our model predictions for plasmoid trajectories compare favorably with a representative set of mult…
The improvement on the Imaging Air Cherenkov Technique (IACT) led to the discovery of a new type of sources that can emit at very high energies: the gamma-ray binaries. Only six systems are part of this exclusive class. We summarize the latest results from the observations performed with the MAGIC telescopes on different systems as the gamma-ray binary LS I +61$^{\circ}$ 303 and the microquasars SS433, V404 Cygni and Cygnus X-1, which are considered potential VHE gamma-ray emitters. The binary system LS I +61$^{\circ}$ 303 has been observed by MAGIC in a long-term monitoring campaign. We show …
The recent detections of microquasars at energies above a few hundred keV up to the TeV in one case has stimulated a strong interest and raised several questions. How are the MeV, GeV, and even TeV emissions, produced? What are the emission processes and in-fine the physics and media at the origin of the broad band spectra? What is the content of these media, and how are they powered? These sources are machines accelerating particles and matter to very high speed in collimated jets. While these are now known for more than twenty years (mainly with radio observations) and their behavior known t…
We present the analysis of an extended \textit{INTEGRAL} dataset of the high-mass microquasar Cygnus X-1. We first classify, in a model-independent way, all the \textit{INTEGRAL} individual pointings taken between 2003 and 2016 in three basic spectral states. This, in particular, allows us to triple the exposure time of the soft state in comparison with previous publication. We then study the spectral properties of the 5--400 keV stacked spectra of the soft and hard states and provide the parameters obtained with our modelling. Using a refined alternative method of extracting the Compton doubl…
Microquasars with high-mass companion stars are promising very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1-100 TeV) gamma-ray emitters, but their behaviors above 10 TeV are poorly known. Using the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we search for excess gamma-ray emission coincident with the positions of known high-mass microquasars (HMMQs). No significant emission is observed for LS 5039, Cygnus X-1, Cygnus X-3, and SS 433 with 1,523 days of HAWC data. We set the most stringent limit above 10 TeV obtained to date on each individual source. Under the assumption that HMMQs produce gamma rays via a comm…
Unveiling Multimessenger Emission from Hidden Cores of Microquasars
The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理研究所）；Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高能物理研究所）；TIANFU Cosmic Ray Research Center（天府宇宙线研究中心）
The Cygnus region hosts one of the most remarkable star-forming regions in the Milky Way. Indeed, the total mass in molecular gas of the Cygnus X complex exceeds 10 times the total mass of all other nearby star-forming regions. Surveys at all wavelengths, from radio to gamma-rays, reveal that Cygnus contains such a wealth and variety of sources---supernova remnants (SNRs), pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), H II regions, Wolf-Rayet binaries, OB associations, microquasars, dense molecular clouds and superbubbles---as to practically be a galaxy in microcosm. The gamma-ray observations along re…
Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar in the Galaxy hosting a Wolf-Rayet companion orbiting a compact object that most likely is a low-mass black hole. The unique source properties are likely due to the interaction of the compact object with the heavy stellar wind of the companion. In this paper, we concentrate on a very specific period of time prior to the massive outbursts observed from the source. During this period, Cygnus X-3 is in a so-called hypersoft state, where the radio and hard X-ray fluxes are found to be at their lowest values (or non-detected), the soft X-ray flux is at its highest…
Cygnus X-1 is a well observed microquasar. Broadband observations at all wavelengths have been collected over the years. The origin of the MeV tail observed with COMPTEL and INTEGRAL is still under debate and it has mostly been attributed to the corona, although its high degree of polarization suggests it is synchrotron radiation from a jet. The origin of the transient emission above $\sim 100$ GeV is also unclear. We aim to disentangle the origin of the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) of Cygnus X-1, focusing particularly on the gamma-ray emission, and to gain information on the p…
The gamma-ray emission detected from several microquasars can be produced by relativistic electrons emitting through inverse Compton scattering. In particular, the GeV emission detected from Cygnus X-3, and its orbital phase dependence, strongly suggest that the emitting electrons are accelerated in a relativistic jet, and that the optical companion provides the dominant target. Here, we study the effects related to particle transport in the framework of the relativistic jet scenario. We find that even in the most compact binary systems, with parameters similar to Cygnus X-3, particle transpor…
In the long-term multi-frequency monitoring program of the microquasars with RATAN-600 we discovered the giant flare from the X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 on 13 September 2016. It happened after 2000 days of the 'quiescent state' of the source passed after the former giant flare (~18 Jy) in March 2011. We have found that during this quiet period the hard X-ray flux (Swift/BAT, 15-50 keV) and radio flux (RATAN-600, 11 GHz) have been strongly anti-correlated. Both radio flares occurred after transitions of the microquasar to a 'hypersoft' X-ray state that occurred in February 2011 and in the end of A…
Polarization of the >~400 keV hard tail of the microquasar Cygnus X-1 has been independently reported by INTEGRAL/IBIS, and INTEGRAL/SPI and interpreted as emission from a compact jet. These conclusions were, however, based on the accumulation of all INTEGRAL data regardless of the spectral state. We utilize additional INTEGRAL exposure accumulated until December 2012, and include the AMI/Ryle (15 GHz) radio data in our study. We separate the observations into hard, soft, and intermediate/transitional states and detect radio emission from a compact jet in hard and intermediate states, but not …
The microquasar Cygnus X-3 underwent a giant radio flare in April 2017, reaching a maximum flux of $\sim 16.5$ Jy at 8.5 GHz. We present results from a long monitoring campaign carried out with Medicina at 8.5, 18.6 and 24.1 GHz, in parallel to the Metsähovi radio telescope at 37 GHz, from 4 to 11 April 2017. We observe a spectral steepening from $α= 0.2$ to 0.5 (with $S_ν \propto ν^{-α}$) within 6 h around the epoch of the peak maximum of the flare, and rapid changes in the spectral slope in the following days during brief enhanced emission episodes while the general trend of the radio flux d…
In September 2016, the microquasar Cygnus X-3 underwent a giant radio flare, which was monitored for 6 days with the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station and the Sardinia Radio Telescope. Long observations were performed in order to follow the evolution of the flare on a hourly scale, covering six frequency ranges from 1.5 GHz to 25.6 GHz. The radio emission reached a maximum of 13.2 +/- 0.7 Jy at 7.2 GHz and 10 +/- 1 Jy at 18.6 GHz. Rapid flux variations were observed at high radio frequencies at the peak of the flare, together with rapid evolution of the spectral index: alpha steepened from 0…
Highly Ionized Fe-K Absorption Line from Cygnus X-1 in the High/Soft State Observed with Suzaku
2011年10月5日，在高/软状态期间，我们在朱雀观测的天鹅座黑洞X-1的高级会合附近观测到了一条瞬态类He Fe K α吸收线，这使我们能够首次绘制出从幕式吸积现象或下降开始和结束的完整演化。我们在事件中的X射线光谱模型，并跟踪其演变。吸收线在观测的前半部分相当弱，但在~10 ks时立即加深，之后减弱。等效宽度的总体变化是~3的因子，在~0.08的轨道相位处达到峰值。这是为黑洞提供能量的伴星风是星云的证据。通过分析与Voigt配置文件的线，它被发现是符合轻微红移的Fe XXV过渡，或可能是几个物种的混合物比Fe XXV少电离。这些数据可以用一个距离约为10^（10-12）cm、密度约为10^（（-13）-（-11））g cm^-3的团块来解释，该团块吸积到黑洞上，并/或通过视线到达黑洞，导致观测到的电离度瞬间下降和/或吸积物质密度增加。通过未来的X射线量热计任务（如ASTRO-H和AXSIO）继续监测个别事件，将使我们能够详细绘制出吸积环境及其在各种吸积状态之间的变化。
Long-term study of the gamma-ray emission of Cygnus X-3 with MAGIC and Fermi-LAT
Tokai University（东海大学）；Kyoto University（京都大学）；ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；Università di Siena（锡耶纳大学）；INFN Pisa（意大利国家核物理研究所比萨分部）；Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE)（高能物理研究所）；The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST)（巴塞罗那科学技术研究所）；Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC（安达卢西亚天体物理学研究所-西班牙高等科学研究委员会）；Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；INFN（意大利国家核物理研究所）；National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)（国家天体物理研究所）；Università di Udine（乌迪内大学）；INFN Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部）；International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA)（相对论天体物理学国际中心）；Max-Planck-Institut für Physik（马克斯·普朗克物理研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理学研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）；University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering（萨格勒布大学电气工程学院）
