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Modeling TeV γ-rays from LS 5039: an active OB star at the extreme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2011

Stan P. Owocki
Affiliation:
Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716, USA email: [email protected]
Atsuo T. Okazaki
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkai-Gakuen University Toyohira-ku, Sapporo 062-8605, Japan email: [email protected]
Gustavo Romero
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Paseo del Bosque, 1900 La Plata, Argentina email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Perhpas the most extreme examples of “Active OB stars" are the subset of high-mass X-ray binaries – consisting of an OB star plus compact companion – that have recently been observed by Fermi and ground-based Cerenkov telescopes like HESS to be sources of very high energy (VHE; up to 30 TeV!) γ-rays. This paper focuses on the prominent γ-ray source, LS5039, which consists of a massive O6.5V star in a 3.9-day-period, mildly elliptical (e ≈ 0.24) orbit with its companion, assumed here to be a black-hole or unmagnetized neutron star. Using 3-D SPH simulations of the Bondi-Hoyle accretion of the O-star wind onto the companion, we find that the orbital phase variation of the accretion follows very closely the simple Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) rate for the local radius and wind speed. Moreover, a simple model, wherein intrinsic emission of γ-rays is assumed to track this accretion rate, reproduces quite well Fermi observations of the phase variation of γ-rays in the energy range 0.1-10 GeV. However for the VHE (0.1-30 TeV) radiation observed by the HESS Cerenkov telescope, it is important to account also for photon-photon interactions between the γ-rays and the stellar optical/UV radiation, which effectively attenuates much of the strong emission near periastron. When this is included, we find that this simple BHL accretion model also quite thus making it a strong alternative to the pulsar-wind-shock models commonly invoked to explain such VHE γ-ray emission in massive-star binaries.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

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