Long-Term Monitoring Of The High-Energy γ-Ray Emission From Ls I +61°303 And Ls 5039
Journal Article
·
· The Astrophysical Journal
- Inst. de Ciencies de l'Espai, Barcelona (Spain)
- Inst. de Ciencies de l'Espai, Barcelona (Spain); Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Inst. Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom)
- Inst. de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (France)
- Univ. Paris, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab.
The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) reported the first definitive GeV detections of the binaries LS I +61°303 and LS 5039 in the first year after its launch in 2008 June. These detections were unambiguous as a consequence of the reduced positional uncertainty and the detection of modulated γ-ray emission on the corresponding orbital periods. An analysis of new data from the LAT, comprising 30 months of observations, identifies a change in the γ-ray behavior of LS I +61°303. An increase in flux is detected in 2009 March and a steady decline in the orbital flux modulation is observed. Significant emission up to 30 GeV is detected by the LAT; prior data sets led to upper limits only. Contemporaneous TeV observations no longer detected the source, or found it—in one orbit—close to periastron, far from the phases at which the source previously appeared at TeV energies. The detailed numerical simulations and models that exist within the literature do not predict or explain many of these features now observed at GeV and TeV energies. New ideas and models are needed to fully explain and understand this behavior. A detailed phase-resolved analysis of the spectral characterization of LS I +61°303 in the GeV regime ascribes a power law with an exponential cutoff spectrum along each analyzed portion of the system's orbit. The on-source exposure of LS 5039 is also substantially increased with respect to our prior publication. In this case, whereas the general γ-ray properties remain consistent, the increased statistics of the current data set allows for a deeper investigation of its orbital and spectral evolution.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 1356750
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 22020481
- Journal Information:
- The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 749; ISSN 0004-637X
- Publisher:
- Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE HIGH-ENERGY {gamma}-RAY EMISSION FROM LS I +61 Degree-Sign 303 AND LS 5039
A RADIO PULSAR SEARCH OF THE {gamma}-RAY BINARIES LS I +61 303 AND LS 5039
Associating long-term γ-ray variability with the superorbital period of LS I +61°303
Journal Article
·
Tue Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012
· Astrophysical Journal
·
OSTI ID:22020481
A RADIO PULSAR SEARCH OF THE {gamma}-RAY BINARIES LS I +61 303 AND LS 5039
Journal Article
·
Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011
· Astrophysical Journal
·
OSTI ID:21582859
Associating long-term γ-ray variability with the superorbital period of LS I +61°303
Journal Article
·
Tue Aug 06 20:00:00 EDT 2013
· The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
·
OSTI ID:1356568