Acceleration by pulsar winds in binary systems
- NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (USA) Delaware Univ., Newark (USA)
In the absence of accretion torques, a pulsar in a binary system will spin down due to electromagnetic dipole radiation, and the spin-down power will drive a wind of relativistic electron-position pairs. Winds from pulsars with short periods will prevent any subsequent accretion but may be confined by the companion star atmosphere, wind, or magnetosphere to form a standing shock. This paper investigates the possibility of particle acceleration at such a pulsar wind shock and the production of VHE and UHE gamma-rays from interactions of accelerated protons in the companion star's wind or atmosphere. It is found that, in close binaries containing active pulsars, protons will be shock accelerated to a maximum energy dependent on the pulsar spin-down luminosity. If a significant fraction of the spin-down power goes into particle acceleration, these systems should be sources of VHE and possibly UHE gamma-rays. The application of the pulsar wind model to binary sources such as Cygnus X-3 is discussed, as well as the possibility of observing VHE gamma-rays from known binary radio pulsar systems. 62 refs.
- OSTI ID:
- 6479962
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal; (USA), Vol. 358; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
BINARY STARS
GAMMA RADIATION
PULSARS
STELLAR WINDS
ACCELERATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON PAIRS
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
MAGNETIC DIPOLES
ROTATION
SHOCK WAVES
STANDING WAVES
STAR ACCRETION
STAR MODELS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DIPOLES
FIELD THEORIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MOTION
MULTIPOLES
RADIATIONS
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources