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Title: | Thermal X-Ray emission from the shocked stellar wind of pulsar gamma-ray binaries |
Author: | Zabalza de Torres, Víctor Bosch i Ramon, Valentí Paredes i Poy, Josep Maria |
Keywords: | Estels binaris de raigs X Raigs gamma X-ray binaries Gamma rays |
Issue Date: | 10-Dec-2011 |
Publisher: | Institute of Physics (IOP) |
Abstract: | Gamma-ray loud X-ray binaries are binary systems that show non-thermal broadband emission from radio to gamma rays. If the system comprises a massive star and a young non-accreting pulsar, their winds will collide producing broadband non-thermal emission, most likely originated in the shocked pulsar wind. Thermal X-ray emission is expected from the shocked stellar wind, but until now it has neither been detected nor studied in the context of gamma-ray binaries. We present a semi-analytic model of the thermal X-ray emission from the shocked stellar wind in pulsar gamma-ray binaries, and find that the thermal X-ray emission increases monotonically with the pulsar spin-down luminosity, reaching luminosities of the order of 10^33 erg/s. The lack of thermal features in the X-ray spectrum of gamma-ray binaries can then be used to constrain the properties of the pulsar and stellar winds. By fitting the observed X-ray spectra of gamma-ray binaries with a source model composed of an absorbed non-thermal power law and the computed thermal X-ray emission, we are able to derive upper limits on the spin-down luminosity of the putative pulsar. We applied this method to LS 5039, the only gamma-ray binary with a radial, powerful wind, and obtain an upper limit on the pulsar spin-down luminosity of ~6x10^36 erg/s. Given the energetic constraints from its high-energy gamma-ray emission, a non-thermal to spin-down luminosity ratio very close to unity may be required. |
Note: | Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/743/1/7 |
It is part of: | Astrophysical Journal, 2011, vol. 743, num. 7 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2445/122845 |
Related resource: | https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/743/1/7 |
ISSN: | 0004-637X |
Appears in Collections: | Articles publicats en revistes (Física Quàntica i Astrofísica) Publicacions de projectes de recerca finançats per la UE |
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