Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/122845
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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