Acceleration by pulsar winds in binary systems
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-positron 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. The authors investigate 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. They find 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 authors discuss the application of the pulsar wind model to binary sources such as Cygnus X-3, as well as the possibility of observing VHE gamma-rays from known binary radio pulsar systems.
- Research Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Albuquerque, NM (USA). Lab. of High Energy Astrophysics
- OSTI ID:
- 6698858
- Report Number(s):
- PB-90-233305/XAB; TRN: 90-027258
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Also available from Supt. of Docs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
BINARY STARS
GAMMA RADIATION
PULSARS
STELLAR WINDS
SHOCK WAVES
ACCELERATION
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
GAMMA ASTRONOMY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PROTONS
STAR ACCRETION
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
ASTRONOMY
ATMOSPHERES
BARYONS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NUCLEONS
RADIATIONS
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources