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Title: A giant radio flare from Cygnus X-3 with associated γ-ray emission: The 2011 radio and γ-ray flare of Cyg X-3

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [10];  [7];  [7];  [3];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Paris and Univ. Inst. of France, (France)
  2. Joseph Fourier University (UJF), Grenoble (France)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Stanford Univ. and SLAC National Accelerator Lab., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; Jagiellonian Univ., Krakow (Poland)
  5. Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States); CRESST and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  6. Curtin Univ., Perth, WA (Australia)
  7. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab.
  9. Special Astrophysicsal Observatory RAS, Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
  10. Stanford Univ. and SLAC National Accelerator Lab., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
  11. Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom)
  12. Netherlands Inst. for Radio Astronomy, Dwingeloo (Netherlands)
  13. George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States)
  14. Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

With frequent flaring activity of its relativistic jets, Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3) is one of the most active microquasars and is the only Galactic black hole candidate with confirmed high-energy γ-ray emission, thanks to detections by Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi/LAT) and AGILE. In 2011, we observed Cyg X-3 in order to transit to a soft X-ray state, which is known to be associated with high-energy γ-ray emission. We present the results of a multiwavelength campaign covering a quenched state, when radio emission from Cyg X-3 is at its weakest and the X-ray spectrum is very soft. A giant (~20 Jy) optically thin radio flare marks the end of the quenched state, accompanied by rising non-thermal hard X-rays. Fermi/LAT observations (E≥ 100 MeV) reveal renewed γ-ray activity associated with this giant radio flare, suggesting a common origin for all non-thermal components. In addition, current observations unambiguously show that the γ-ray emission is not exclusively related to the rare giant radio flares. A three-week period of γ-ray emission is also detected when Cyg X-3 was weakly flaring in radio, right before transition to the radio quenched state. There were no γ-rays observed during the ~1-month long quenched state, when the radio flux is weakest. These results suggest transitions into and out of the ultrasoft X-ray (radio-quenched) state trigger γ-ray emission, implying a connection to the accretion process, and also that the γ-ray activity is related to the level of radio flux (and possibly shock formation), strengthening the connection to the relativistic jets.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356746
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 421, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 66 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (20)

Gamma-ray binaries and related systems journal August 2013
Ten years of AGILE: the mission and scientific highlights journal September 2019
A search for very high-energy flares from the microquasars GRS 1915+105, Circinus X-1, and V4641 Sgr using contemporaneous H.E.S.S. and RXTE observations journal April 2018
The hypersoft state of Cygnus X–3: A key to jet quenching in X-ray binaries? journal April 2018
Observational constraints on the powering mechanism of transient relativistic jets journal March 2013
Inverse Compton emission from relativistic jets in binary systems journal August 2018
Discovery of a radio transient in M81 journal May 2019
Gamma-rays from SS433: evidence for periodicity journal February 2019
Energy-dependent orbital modulation of X-rays and constraints on emission of the jet in Cyg X-3: Orbital modulation of X-rays in Cyg X-3 journal September 2012
High-energy Gamma-Ray Activity from V404 Cygni Detected by AGILE during the 2015 June Outburst journal April 2017
GeV Detection of HESS J0632+057 journal September 2017
A Very High Energy γ -Ray Survey toward the Cygnus Region of the Galaxy journal July 2018
An X-Ray + Radio Search for Massive Black Holes in Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies journal October 2019
Discovery of the Galactic High-mass Gamma-Ray Binary 4FGL J1405.1−6119 journal October 2019
A New Sample of (Wandering) Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies from High-resolution Radio Observations journal January 2020
Discovery of the Galactic High-Mass Gamma-ray Binary 4FGL J1405.1-6119 collection January 2019
A search for very high energy flares from the microquasars GRS 1915+105, Circinus X-1, and V4641 Sgr using contemporaneous H.E.S.S. and RXTE observations text January 2016
A Very High Energy γ -Ray Survey toward the Cygnus Region of the Galaxy text January 2018
VERITAS Observations of the Microquasar Cygnus X-3 text January 2013
High-energy gamma-ray activity from V404 Cygni detected by AGILE during the 2015 June outburst text January 2017

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
black hole physics
stars: individual: Cyg X-3
ISM: jets and outflows
gamma-rays: stars
radio continuum: stars
x-rays: binaries