A Luminous and Highly Variable Gamma-Ray Flare Following the 2017 Periastron of PSR B1259–63/LS 2883

Johnson, T. J.; Wood, K. S.; Kerr, M.; Corbet, R. H.  D.; Cheung, C. C.; Ray, P. S.; Omodei, N.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aad185

Title: A Luminous and Highly Variable Gamma-Ray Flare Following the 2017 Periastron of PSR B1259–63/LS 2883

Journal Article · Wed Aug 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aad185· OSTI ID:1468728

Johnson, T. J. ^[1]; Wood, K. S. ^[2]; Kerr, M. ^[3]; Corbet, R. H. D. ^[4]; Cheung, C. C. ^[3];

^[3];

^[5]

George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States). College of Science; Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States)
Praxis Inc., Alexandria, VA (United States); Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States)
Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States). Space Science Division
Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States). X-ray Astrophysics Lab.; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (United States)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States). W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Lab., Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics

Three periastron passages of the PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 binary system, consisting of a 48 ms rotation-powered pulsar and a Be star, have been observed by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, in 2010, 2014, and 2017. During the most recent periastron passage, sustained low-level gamma-ray emission was observed over a ~3-week-long interval immediately after periastron, which was followed by an interval of no emission. Sporadic flares were detected starting 40 days post-periastron and lasted approximately 50 days, during which the emission displayed significant spectral curvature, variability on timescales as short as 1.5 minutes, and peak flux levels well in excess of the pulsar spin-down power. By contrast, during the 2010 and 2014 periastron passages, significant gamma-ray emission was not observed with the LAT until 30 and 32 days post-periastron, respectively. The previous flares did not exhibit spectral curvature, showed no short term variability, and did not exceed the pulsar spin-down power. The high flux and short timescales observed in 2017 suggest significant beaming of the emission is required and constrain the size of the emission region. Finally, the flares occur long enough after periastron that the neutron star should already have passed through the extended disk-like outflow, thus constraining options for target material and seed photon sources for inverse Compton models.

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Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; Centre National d'Études Spatiales, France

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1468728

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 863, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 22 works

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References (35)

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Multiscale Time- and Frequency-domain Likelihood Analysis with Photon Weights Kerr, M. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 885, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab459f	journal	November 2019
X-Ray Spectral Evolution of PSR J2032+4127 during the 2017 Periastron Passage Pal, Partha Sarathi; Tam, P. H. T.; Cui, Y. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab31a7	journal	August 2019
First detection of PSR B1259−63/LS 2883 in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths with ALMA Fujita, Yutaka; Kawachi, Akiko; Akahori, Takuya Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Vol. 71, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psz085	journal	August 2019
Evolution of the Extended X-Ray Emission from the PSR B1259–63/LS 2883 Binary in the 2014–2017 Binary Cycle Hare, Jeremy; Kargaltsev, Oleg; Pavlov, George The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 882, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab3648	journal	September 2019
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X-Ray and Radio Variabilities of PSR J2032+4127 near Periastron Ng, C. -Y.; Ho, W. C. G.; Gotthelf, E. V. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 880, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab2adb	journal	August 2019
H.E.S.S. and Fermi -LAT observations of PSR B1259–63/LS 2883 during its 2014 and 2017 periastron passages Abdalla, H.; Adam, R.; Aharonian, F. Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 633 https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936621	journal	January 2020
Discovery of the Galactic High-mass Gamma-Ray Binary 4FGL J1405.1−6119 Corbet, R. H. D.; Chomiuk, L.; Coe, M. J. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 884, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab3e32	journal	October 2019
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Overview of non-transient gamma-ray binaries and prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Chernyakova, M.; Malyshev, D.; Paizis, A. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1909.11018	text	January 2019
Modelling the interaction between relativistic and non-relativistic winds in binary pulsar systems: strong magnetization of the pulsar wind Bogovalov, Sergey V.; Khangulyan, Dmitry; Koldoba, Alexander V. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1911.07441	text	January 2019
H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT observations of PSR B1259–63/LS 2883 during its 2014 and 2017 periastron passages Mitchell, A. M. W.; Al, Et EDP Sciences https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-185552	text	January 2020

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79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
gamma-rays: stars
pulsars: individual (PSR B1259-63)

Title: A Luminous and Highly Variable Gamma-Ray Flare Following the 2017 Periastron of PSR B1259–63/LS 2883

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