Microquasars have been expected to emit high energy gamma-rays due to their general similarities to the gamma-ray emitting blazars (evidences of relativistic jets, non-thermal radio to X-ray emission). In fact, the first source of this type, Cyg X-3, has been recently unambiguously discovered by the satellite telescopes. We study the features of the gamma-ray radiation produced in these sources by relativistic electrons, accelerated in the inner part of the jet. The electrons initiate an Inverse Compton e^\pm pair cascade in the radiation field of the accretion disk. Due to the anisotropy of the accretion disk radiation field, the spectra of gamma-rays show strong dependence on the observation angle, the location of the emission region within the jet and the details of the acceleration process. As an example, we confront our model with the observations of the microquasar Cyg X-3, which has been recently reported as a transient GeV gamma-ray source by the Agile and the Fermi Observatories. Satisfactory description of the gamma-ray spectra observed from Cyg X-3 are obtained in the case of the injection of electrons in the inner part of the jet (located within 300 inner disk radius from the jet base) provided that the observer is located at relatively small angle to the jet axis.
AGILE data on Cygnus X-3 are reviewed focussing on the correlation between the production of gamma-ray transient emission and spectral state changes of the source. AGILE clearly establishes a relation between enhanced gamma-ray emission and the "quenched" radio/hard X-ray states that precede in general major radio flares. We briefly discuss the theoretical implications of our findings.
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…
Detecting gamma-rays from microquasars is a challenging but worthwhile endeavor for understanding particle acceleration, the jet mechanism, and for constraining leptonic/hadronic emission models. We present results from a likelihood analysis on timescales of 1 d and 10 d of ~4 years worth of gamma-ray observations (0.1-10 GeV) by Fermi-LAT of Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3, GRS 1915+105, and GX 339-4. Our analysis reproduced all but one of the previous gamma-ray outbursts of Cyg X-3 as reported with Fermi or AGILE, plus 5 new days on which Cyg X-3 is detected at a significance of ~5-sigma that are not repor…
The microquasar V404 Cygni (also known as GS 2023+338) was previously reported to have weak GeV gamma-ray emission in sub-day time periods during its 2015 outburst. In order to provide more detailed information at the high energy range for this black hole binary system, we conduct analysis to the data obtained with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). Both LAT database and source catalog used are the latest. In addition to the previously reported detection at the peak of the 2015 outburst, we find possible detection ($\sim 4σ$) of the source durin…
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)
We review the spectral properties of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. Specifically, we discuss two recent sets of multi-satellite observations. One comprises a 0.5-500 keV spectrum, obtained with every flying X-ray satellite at that time, that is among the hardest Cyg X-1 spectra observed to date. The second set is comprised of 0.5-40 keV Chandra-HETG plus RXTE-PCA spectra from a radio-quiet, spectrally soft state. We first discuss the "messy astrophysics" often neglected in the study of Cyg X-1, i.e., ionized absorption from the wind of the secondary and the foreground dust scattering hal…
We study the origin of non-thermal emissions from the Galactic black hole X-ray binary Cygnus X--1 which is a confirmed high mass microquasar. By analogy with those methods used in studies of active galactic nuclei, we propose a two-dimensional, time-dependent radiation model from the microquasar Cygnus X--1. In this model, the evolution equation for relativistic electrons in a conical jet are numerically solved by including escape, adiabatic and various radiative losses. The radiative processes involved are synchrotron emission, its self-Compton scattering, and inverse Compton scatterings of …
We present a radio observation of microquasar Cyg X-3 during an X-ray state transition from ultrasoft to hard state in the 2007 May$-$June flare using the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) at 22 GHz. During the transition, a short-lived mini-flare of ${\lesssim}3$ hr was detected prior to the major flare. In such a transition, a jet ejection is believed to occur, but there have been no direct observations to support it. An analysis of Gaussian fits to the observed visibility amplitudes shows a time variation of the source axis, or a structural change, during the mini-flare. Our model…
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 interpretation of the X-ray spectra of X-ray binaries during their hard states requires a hot, optically thin medium. There are several accretion disc models in the literature that account for this aspect. However, none is designed to simultaneously explain the presence of powerful jets detected during these states. A new quasi-keplerian hot accretion disc solution, a Jet Emitting disc (JED hereafter), which is part of a global disc-jet MHD structure producing stationary super-alfvénic ejection, is investigated here. Its radiative and energetic properties are then compared to the observati…
High-mass microquasars (HMMQs) are powerful particle accelerators, but their mechanism of the high-energy emission is poorly understood. To date, only a handful of these particle engines have ever been observed to emit gamma-ray photons and are thus potential TeV gamma-ray emitters. In this work, we study four HMMQs, namely, LS 5039, Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3, and SS 433 using the data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. We perform time dependent analyses on each HMMQ to look for any periodic variations in their flux. We produce light curves using the HAWC daily maps from which w…
We report results from TeV gamma-ray observations of the microquasar Cygnus X-3. The observations were made with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) over a time period from 2007 June 11 to 2011 November 28. VERITAS is most sensitive to gamma rays at energies between 85 GeV to 30 TeV. The effective exposure time amounts to a total of about 44 hours, with the observations covering six distinct radio/X-ray states of the object. No significant TeV gamma-ray emission was detected in any of the states, nor with all observations combined. The lack of a positive signa…
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…
Microquasars, Galactic binary systems showing extended and variable radio emission, are potential gamma-ray emitters. Indications of gamma-ray transient episodes have been reported in at least two systems, Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3. The identification of additional gamma-ray emitting microquasars is key for a better understanding of these systems. Very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from microquasars has been predicted to happen during periods of transient outbursts potentially connected with the formation of a jet-like outflow. Contemporaneous observations using the H.E.S.S. telescope array and the…
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…
On 2015 June 15 the Swift space observatory discovered that the Galactic black hole candidate V404 Cyg was undergoing another active X-ray phase, after 25 years of inactivity (Barthelmy et al. 2015). Twelve telescopes of the MASTER Global Robotic Net located at six sites across four continents were the first ground based observatories to start optical monitoring of the microquasar after its gamma-ray wakeup at 18h 34m 09s U.T. on 2015 June 15 (Lipunov et al. 2015). In this paper we report, for the first time, the discovery of variable optical linear polarization, changing by 4-6% over a timesc…
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)
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…
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…
The study of relativistic particle acceleration is a major topic of high-energy astrophysics. It is well known that massive black holes in active galaxies can release a substantial fraction of their accretion power into energetic particles, producing gamma-rays and relativistic jets. Galactic microquasars (hosting a compact star of 1-10 solar masses which accretes matter from a binary companion) also produce relativistic jets. However, no direct evidence of particle acceleration above GeV energies has ever been obtained in microquasar ejections, leaving open the issue of the occurrence and tim…
High-mass microquasar jets, produced in an accreting compact object in orbit around a massive star, must cross a region filled with stellar wind. The combined effects of the wind and orbital motion can strongly affect the jet properties on binary scales and beyond. The study of such effects can shed light on how high-mass microquasar jets propagate and terminate in the interstellar medium. We study for the first time, using relativistic hydrodynamical simulations, the combined impact of the stellar wind and orbital motion on the properties of high-mass microquasar jets on binary scales and bey…
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 …
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…
Microquasars are accreting binary systems displaying relativistic radio jets where very high energy gamma rays might be produced via Inverse Compton scattering. The detection of the microquasar Cygnus X-3 above 100 MeV by both Fermi/LAT and AGILE satellites, together with the short flares from Cygnus X-1 reported by AGILE, confirmed that this class of astrophysical objects are interesting candidates for very high energy gamma-ray observations. The stand-alone imaging atmospheric Cherenkov MAGIC telescope, and later on the recently inaugurated stereoscopic system, made a significant effort to s…
Cygnus X-1 is a Galactic black-hole binary and a microquasar. Its X-ray emission originates most likely in the accretion flow, while the radio emission is from a magnetized jet. We study long-term cross-correlations between its X-ray and radio fluxes, searching for lags of the peak of the correlation. We use soft X-ray data from the All Sky Monitor on board of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, hard X-ray data from the Burst Alert Telescope on board of Neil Gehrels Swift, and 15 GHz radio monitoring data from the Ryle and AMI telescopes, which light curves cover all of the spectral states of Cyg X-1…
Microquasars, X-ray binaries displaying relativistic jets driven by accretion onto a compact object, are some of the most efficient accelerators in the Galaxy. Theoretical models predict Very High Energy (VHE) emission at the base of the jet where particles are accelerated to multi-TeV energies. This emission could be detected by present IACTs. %Moreover, gamma-ray fluxes should increase during flaring events when accretion rates are enhanced. The MAGIC telescope observed the microquasars GRS 1915+105, Cyg X-3, Cyg X-1 and SS433 for ~ 150 hours in total from 2005 to 2008. We triggered our obse…
Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar. Its X-ray emission shows a very strong 4.8-hour orbital modulation. But its mass-donating companion is a Wolf-Rayet star. Also unlike most other X-ray binaries Cygnus X-3 is relatively bright in the radio virtually all of the time (the exceptions being the quenched states). Cygnus X-3 also undergoes giant radio outbursts (up to 20 Jy). In this presentation we discuss and review the flaring behavior of Cygnus X-3 and its various radio/X-ray states. We present a revised set of radio/X-ray states based on Cygnus X-3's hardness-intensity diagram (HID). We also e…
Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar which shows X-ray state changes, strong radio emission, and relativistic jets. It is also an unusual X-ray binary with the mass-donating companion being a high mass star Wolf-Rayet but the orbital modulation (as inferred from X-ray emission) is only 4.8 hours, a value more common in low-mass systems. It has recently been shown by AGILE and Fermi that Cygnus X-3, is a transient gamma-ray source (>100 MeV). To understand the environment, nature, and behavior of Cygnus X-3 multi-wavelength observations are necessary. In this proceedings we present the results ac…
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…
The high-mass microquasar Cygnus X-3 has been recently detected in a flaring state by the gamma-ray satellites Fermi and Agile. In the present contribution, we study the high-energy emission from Cygnus X-3 through a model based on the interaction of clumps from the Wolf-Rayet wind with the jet. The clumps inside the jet act as obstacles in which shocks are formed leading to particle acceleration and non-thermal emission. We model the high energy emission produced by the interaction of one clump with the jet and briefly discus the possibility of many clumps interacting with the jet. From the c…
The stellar winds of the massive stars in high-mass microquasars are thought to be inhomogeneous. The interaction of these inhomogeneities, or clumps, with the jets of these objects may be a major factor in gamma-ray production. Our goal is to characterize a typical scenario of clump-jet interaction, and calculate the contribution of these interactions to the gamma-ray emission from these systems. We use axisymmetric, RHD simulations to model the emitting flow in a typical clump-jet interaction. Using the simulation results we perform a numerical calculation of the high-energy emission from on…
We calculate the electron-positron pair production rate at the base of the jet of Cyg X-1 by collisions of photons from its hot accretion flow using the measurement of its average soft gamma-ray spectra by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and INTEGRAL satellites. We have found that this rate approximately equals the flow rate of the leptons emitting the observed synchrotron radio-to-IR spectrum of the jet, calculated using an extended jet model following that of Blandford \& Koenigl. This coincidence shows the jet composition is likely to be pair-dominated. The same coincidences were found be…
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…
The AGILE satellite detected transient high-energy gamma-ray emission from the X-ray binary V404 Cygni, during the June 2015 outburst observed in radio, optical, X-ray and soft gamma-ray frequencies. The activity was observed by AGILE in the 50-400 MeV energy band, between 2015-06-24 UT 06:00:00 and 2015-06-26 UT 06:00:00 (MJD 57197.25 - 57199.25), with a detection significance of ${\sim}4.3σ$. The gamma-ray detection, consistent with a contemporaneous observation by Fermi-LAT, is correlated with a bright flare observed at radio and hard X-ray frequencies, and with a strong enhancement of the …
High-mass microquasars are binary systems consisting of a massive star and an accreting compact object from which relativistic jets are launched. There is considerable observational evidence that winds of massive stars are clumpy. Individual clumps may interact with the jets in high-mass microquasars to produce outbursts of high-energy emission. Gamma-ray flares have been detected in some high-mass X-ray binaries, such as Cygnus X-1, and probably in LS 5039 and LS I+61 303. We predict the high-energy emission produced by the interaction between a jet and a clump of the stellar wind in a high-m…
Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3) is a well-known microquasar producing variable emission at all wavelengths. Cyg X-3 is a prominent X-ray binary producing relativistic jets, and studying its high energy emission is crucial for the understanding of the fundamental acceleration processes in accreting compact objects. Aims. Our goal is to study extreme particle acceleration and γ-ray production above 100 MeV during special spectral states of Cyg X- 3 usually characterized by a low hard X-ray flux and enhanced soft X-ray states. We observed Cyg X-3 with the AGILE satellite in extended time intervals from 2009…
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)
Cyg X-3 is a high mass X-ray binary consisting of a Wolf-Rayet star and a compact object in a very short orbital period of 4.8h. The only confirmed microquasar with high energy gamma-ray emission, Cyg X-3 provides a unique opportunity to study the relationship between the accretion power and the power in high energy emission. Because of a compact orbit and a slow Wolf-Rayet wind, the flow structure around the compact object is thought to be strongly affected by the orbital motion, details of which can be obtained only by numerical simulations. In this paper, we report on the results from 3D hy…
We present the theoretical background and detailed equations for the synchrotron emission of a shock wave propagating in a relativistic jet. We then show how the evolution of an outburst in this shock-in-jet scenario can be analytically described and parameterized to be fitted to multi-frequency lightcurves of galactic and extragalactic sources. This is done here for the first time with a completely physical description of the jet and the shocked gas, while previous studies used a more phenomenological approach based on the observed properties of the outbursts. Another interesting addition to …
The AGILE satellite detected several episodes of transient gamma-ray emission from Cygnus X-3. Cross-correlating the AGILE light curve with both X-ray and radio monitoring data, we found that the main events of gamma-ray activity were detected while the system was in soft spectral X-ray states, that coincide with local and often sharp minima of the hard X-ray flux, a few days before intense radio outbursts. This repetitive temporal coincidence between the gamma-ray transient emission and spectral state changes of the source turns out to be the spectral signature of high-energy activity from th…
The high-mass microquasar Cygnus X-1, the best-established candidate for a stellar-mass black hole in the Galaxy, has been detected in a flaring state at very high energies (VHE), E > 200 GeV, by the Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope MAGIC. The flare occurred at orbital phase 0.91, where phase 1 is the configuration with the black hole behind the companion high-mass star, when the absorption of gamma-ray photons by photon-photon annihilation with the stellar field is expected to be highest. We aim to set up a model for the high-energy emission and absorption in Cyg X-1 that can explain the natur…
Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3) is a remarkable Galactic microquasar (X-ray binary) emitting from radio to $γ$-ray energies. In this paper, we consider hadronic model of emission of $γ$-rays above 100 MeV and their implications. We focus here on the joint $γ$-ray and neutrino production resulting from proton-proton interactions within the binary system. We find that the required proton injection kinetic power, necessary to explain the $γ$-ray flux observed by AGILE and Fermi-LAT, is $L_p \sim 10^{38}\:\rm{erg\:s^{-1}}$, a value in agreement with the average bolometric luminosity of the hypersoft state (w…
Polarization measurements of the microquasar Cygnus X-1 exist at gamma-ray, X-ray, UV, optical and radio frequencies. The gamma-ray emission has been shown to be highly linearly polarized. Here, we present new infrared polarimetric data of Cygnus X-1 taken with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias and the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. We show that the broadband, radio to gamma-ray flux spectrum and polarization spectrum in the hard state are largely consistent with a simple phenomenological model of a strongly polarized synchrotron jet, an unpolarized Comptonized corona and a moderately pol…
Cygnus X-3 is one of the brightest X-ray and radio sources in the Galaxy, and is well known for its erratic behaviour in X-rays as well as in the radio, occasionally producing major radio flares associated with relativistic ejections. However, even after many years of observations in various wavelength bands Cyg X-3 still eludes clear physical understanding. Studying different emission bands simultaneously in microquasars has proved to be a fruitful approach towards understanding these systems, especially by shedding light on the accretion disc/jet connection. We continue this legacy by constr…
Recently, microquasar jets have aroused the interest of many researchers focusing on the astrophysical plasma outflows and various jet ejections. In this work, we concentrate on the investigation of electromagnetic radiation and particle emissions from the jets of stellar black hole binary systems characterized by the hadronic content in their jets. Such emissions are reliably described within the context of the relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics. Our model calculations are based on the Fermi acceleration mechanism through which the primary particles (mainly protons) of the jet are accelerated…
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…
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…
The compact X-ray binary system Cyg X-3 has been recently discovered as a source of GeV gamma-rays by the AGILE and the {\it Fermi} satellites. It shows emission features in the GeV gamma-rays similar to other gamma-ray binaries which were also observed in the TeV gamma-rays (LS 5039 and LSI +61 303). The question appears whether Cyg X-3 can be also detected in the TeV gamma-rays by the Cherenkov telescopes. Here we discuss this problem in detail based on the anisotropic inverse Compton (IC) e-p pair cascade model successfully applied to TeV gamma-ray binaries. We calculate the gamma-ray light…
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…
We present a multiwavelength analysis of the simultaneous optical and X-ray light curves of the microquasar V404 Cyg during the June 2015 outburst. We have performed a comprehensive analysis of all the INTEGRAL/IBIS, JEM-X, and OMC observations during the brightest epoch of the outburst, along with complementary NuSTAR, AAVSO, and VSNET data, to examine the timing relationship between the simultaneous optical and X-ray light curves, in order to understand the emission mechanisms and physical locations. We have identified all optical flares which have simultaneous X-ray observations, and perfor…
The microquasar Cygnus X-3 was detected at high energies by the gamma-ray space telescopes AGILE and Fermi. The gamma-ray emission is transient, modulated with the orbital period and seems related to major radio flares, i.e. to the relativistic jet. The GeV gamma-ray flux can be substantially attenuated by internal absorption with the ambient X-rays. In this study, we examine quantitatively the effect of pair production in Cygnus X-3 and put constraints on the location of the gamma-ray source. Cygnus X-3 exhibits complex temporal and spectral patterns in X-rays. During gamma-ray flares, the X-…
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…
High-mass microquasars are binary systems composed by a massive star and a compact object from which relativistic jets are launched. Regarding the companion star, observational evidence supports the idea that winds of hot stars are formed by clumps. Then, these inhomogeneities may interact with the jets producing a flaring activity. In the present contribution we study the interaction between a jet and a clump of the stellar wind in a high-mass microquasar. This interaction produces a shock in the jet, where particles may be accelerated up to relativistic energies. We calculate the spectral en…
In this work we give an estimate of the neutrino flux that can be expected from the microquasar Cyg X-3. We calculate the muon neutrino flux expected here on Earth as well as the corresponding number of neutrino events in the IceCube telescope based on the so-called hypersoft X-ray state of Cyg~X-3. If the average emission from Cyg~X-3 over a period of 5 yr were as high as during the used X-ray state, a total of 0.8 events should be observed by the full IceCube telescope. We also show that this conclusion holds by a factor of a few when we consider the other measured X-ray states. Using the co…
With frequent flaring activity of its relativistic jets, Cygnus X-3 is one of the most active microquasars and is the only Galactic black hole candidate with confirmed high energy Gamma-ray emission, thanks to detections by Fermi/LAT and AGILE. In 2011, Cygnus X-3 was observed to transit to a soft X-ray state, which is known to be associated with high-energy Gamma-ray emission. We present the results of a multi-wavelength campaign covering a quenched state, when radio emission from Cygnus X-3 is at its weakest and the X-ray spectrum is very soft. A giant (~ 20 Jy) optically thin radio flare ma…