2006/10/24 by I. F. Mirabel
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysical jet #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Binary number #Binary pulsar #Binary star #Collimated light #Compact star #Galaxy #Gamma ray #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Millisecond pulsar #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsar #Stars #X-ray binary #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9459-y
published as Astrophys.SpaceSci.309:267-270,2007 · 4 pages, 3 figures. Invited talk to appear in Proceedings of the conference "The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources", Barcelona, 4-7 July 2006
arxiv created 2006/10/24 · openalex publication_date 2007/05/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recent observations have shown that some compact stellar binaries radiate the highest energy light in the universe. The challenge has been to determine the nature of the compact object and whether the very high energy gamma-rays are ultimately powered by pulsar winds or relativistic jets. Multiwavelength observations have shown that one of the three gamma-ray binaries known so far, PSR B1259-63, is a neutron star binary and that the very energetic gamma-rays from this source and from another gamma-ray binary, LS I +61 303, may be produced by the interaction of pulsar winds with the wind from the companion star. At this time it is an open question whether the third gamma-ray binary, LS 5039, is also powered by a pulsar wind or a microquasar jet, where relativistic particles in collimated jets would boost the energy of the wind from the stellar companion to TeV energies.