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- Title
Extreme particle acceleration in the microquasar Cygnus X-3.
- Authors
Tavani, M.; Bulgarelli, A.; Piano, G.; Sabatini, S.; Striani, E.; Evangelista, Y.; Trois, A.; Pooley, G.; Trushkin, S.; Nizhelskij, N. A.; McCollough, M.; Koljonen, K. I. I.; Pucella, G.; Giuliani, A.; Chen, A. W.; Costa, E.; Vittorini, V.; Trifoglio, M.; Gianotti, F.; Argan, A.
- Abstract
Super-massive black holes in active galaxies can accelerate particles to relativistic energies, producing jets with associated γ-ray emission. Galactic ‘microquasars’, which are binary systems consisting of a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole accreting gas from a companion star, also produce relativistic jets, generally together with radio flares. Apart from an isolated event detected in Cygnus X-1, there has hitherto been no systematic evidence for the acceleration of particles to gigaelectronvolt or higher energies in a microquasar, with the consequence that we are as yet unsure about the mechanism of jet energization. Here we report four γ-ray flares with energies above 100 MeV from the microquasar Cygnus X-3 (an exceptional X-ray binary that sporadically produces radio jets). There is a clear pattern of temporal correlations between the γ-ray flares and transitional spectral states of the radio-frequency and X-ray emission. Particle acceleration occurred a few days before radio-jet ejections for two of the four flares, meaning that the process of jet formation implies the production of very energetic particles. In Cygnus X-3, particle energies during the flares can be thousands of times higher than during quiescent states.
- Subjects
CYGNUS X-3; GALAXIES; BLACK holes; X-ray spectroscopy; SOLAR quiescent prominences; NEUTRON stars; BINARY metallic systems; SIGNALS &; signaling; JETS (Fluid dynamics)
- Publication
Nature, 2009, Vol 462, Issue 7273, p620
- ISSN
0028-0836
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nature08578