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HADRONIC GAMMA-RAY AND NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM CYGNUS X-3.
- Source :
-
Astrophysical Journal . 1/1/2014, Vol. 780 Issue 1, p29-35. 7p. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- 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 the hadronic model of emission of γ-rays above 100 MeV and their implications. We focus 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 Lp ∼ 1038 erg s–1, a value in agreement with the average bolometric luminosity of the hypersoft state (when Cyg X-3 was repeatedly observed to produce transient γ-ray activity). If we assume an increase of the wind density at the superior conjunction, the asymmetric production of γ-rays along the orbit can reproduce the observed modulation. According to observational constraints and our modeling, a maximal flux of high-energy neutrinos would be produced for an initial proton distribution with a power-law index α = 2.4. The predicted neutrino flux is almost two orders of magnitude less than the two-month IceCube sensitivity at ∼1 TeV. If the protons are accelerated up to PeV energies, the predicted neutrino flux for a prolonged “soft X-ray state” would be a factor of about three lower than the one-year IceCube sensitivity at ∼10 TeV. This study shows that, for a prolonged soft state (as observed in 2006) possibly related to γ-ray activity and a hard distribution of injected protons, Cyg X-3 might be close to being detectable by cubic-kilometer neutrino telescopes such as IceCube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *HADRONIC atoms
*EXOTIC atoms
*GAMMA rays
*ELECTROMAGNETIC waves
*NEUTRINOS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0004637X
- Volume :
- 780
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Astrophysical Journal
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 94289924
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/780/1/29