2008/01/09 by Agnieszka Sierpowska-Bartosik, Diego F. Torres · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary pulsar #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #Lepton #Phenomenology (philosophy) #Photon #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spectral line #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/529376
published as Astrophys.J.674:L89-L92,2008 · Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
arxiv created 2008/01/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
LS 5039 is one of a handful of X-ray binaries that have been recently detected at high-energy γ-rays, in this case, by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.). The nature of this system is unknown: both a black hole and a pulsar have been invoked as possible compact object companions. Here we work with a model of the high-energy phenomenology of the system in which it is assumed that the companion object is a pulsar rotating around an O6.5 V star in a ~3.9 day orbit. The model assumes two different sets of power-law spectral parameters of the interacting primary leptons corresponding to the two orbital phase intervals defined by H.E.S.S. as having different γ-ray spectra and very high energy (VHE) cutoffs. We show that the H.E.S.S. phenomenology is completely explained by this model. We present predictions for photons with lower energies (for E > 1 GeV), subject to test in the forthcoming months with the GLAST satellite. We find that GLAST will be able to judge on this model within 1 year.