SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2410.08988

Ultrahigh-Energy Gamma-ray Emission Associated with Black Hole-Jet Systems

Abstract

Black holes (BH), one of the most intriguing objects in the universe, can manifest themselves through electromagnetic radiation initiated by the accretion flow. Some stellar-mass BHs drive relativistic jets when accreting matter from their companion stars, forming microquasars. Non-thermal emission from the radio to tera-electronvolt (TeV) gamma-ray band has been observed from microquasars, indicating the acceleration of relativistic particles. Here we report detection of four microquasars (SS 433, V4641 Sgr, GRS 1915+105, MAXI J1820+070) of spectrum extending to the ultrahigh-energy (UHE; photon energy $E>100$ TeV) band and one microquasar (Cygnus X-1) of spectrum approaching 100 TeV, using the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Notably, the total emission associated with SS 433 cannot be interpreted with a single leptonic component. In the UHE band, its emission is in spatial coincidence with a giant atomic cloud, which is consistent with a hadronic origin. An elongated source is discovered from V4641 Sgr with the spectrum continuing up to 800 TeV. The detection of UHE gamma rays demonstrates that accreting BHs and their environments can operate as extremely efficient accelerators of particles out of 1 peta-electronvolt (PeV), suggesting microquasars to be important contributors to Galactic cosmic rays especially around the `knee' region.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

The LHAASO Collaboration, Zhen Cao, Felix Aharonian, Yun-Xiang Bai, Yi-Wei Bao, Denis Bastieri, Xiao-Jun Bi, Yu-Jiang Bi, Wen-Yi Bian, Anatoly V Bukevich, Chengmiao Cai, Wen-Yu Cao, Zhe Cao, Jin Chang, Jin-Fan Chang, Aming Chen, En-Sheng Chen, Guohai Chen, Hua-Xi Chen, Liang Chen, Long Chen, Ming-Jun Chen, Ma-Li Chen, Qi-Hui Chen, Shi Chen, Su-Hong Chen, Song-Zhan Chen, Tian-Lu Chen, Xiao-Bin Chen, Xuejian Chen, Yang Chen, Ning Cheng, Yao-Dong Cheng, Ming Chung Chu, Ming-Yang Cui, Shu-Wang Cui, Xiao-Hong Cui, Yi-Dong Cui, Ben-Zhong Dai, Hong-Liang Dai, Zigao Dai, Danzeng Luobu, Yang-Xuan Diao, Xu-Qiang Dong, Kai-Kai Duan, Jun-Hui Fan, Yi-Zhong Fan, Jun Fang, Jian-Hua Fang, Kun Fang, Cun-feng Feng, Hua Feng, Li Feng, Shaohui Feng, Xiao-ting Feng, Yi Feng, You-liang Feng, Stefano Gabici, Bo Gao, Chuan-dong Gao, Qi Gao, Wei Gao, Wei-kang Gao, Maomao Ge, Ting-Ting Ge, Lisi Geng, Gwenael Giacinti, Guanghua Gong, Quanbu Gou, Min-Hao Gu, Fu-Lai Guo, Jing Guo, Xiao-Lei Guo, Yi-Qing Guo, Ying-Ying Guo, Yi-Ang Han, Otto A Hannuksela, Mariam Hasan, Hui-Hai He, Hao-Ning He, Jia-Yin He, Xinyu He, Yu He, Sergio Hernández-Cadena, Bo-Wen Hou, Chao Hou, Xian Hou, Hong-Bo Hu, Shi-Cong Hu, Chen Huang, Dai-Hui Huang, Jiajun Huang, Tian-Qi Huang, Wen-Jun Huang, Xing-Tao Huang, Xiao-Yuan Huang, Yong Huang, Yi-Yun Huang, Xiao-Lu Ji, Huan-Yu Jia. 2024-10-11. Ultrahigh-Energy Gamma-ray Emission Associated with Black Hole-Jet Systems. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr%2Fnwaf496

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

IceCube neutrino point-source searches in the direction of the KM3NeT ultra-high-energy event

While still under construction, the KM3NeT Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss (ARCA) detector recorded a $\sim$200 PeV neutrino on February 13th, 2023. This event is the highest-energy neutrino reported. IceCube, a cubic kilometer neutrino detector located at the geographic South Pole, has previously detected neutrinos up to approximately 10 PeV. We search for high-energy neutrinos from the location of the KM3NeT event using 15 years of IceCube data and considering three temporal hypotheses: steady or flaring in time coincidence, or at an arbitrary time. We find no evidence for neutrino emission for any of the studies performed. Correspondingly, we set upper limits on the neutrino flux from a point source in the direction of KM3-230213A. We compare these limits to KM3NeT's estimated flux and show that an astrophysical explanation of this event is strongly constrained for a variety of spectral assumptions for a steady or transient point source with the flux inferred from the single KM3NeT ultra-high-energy event assuming a spectral index of 2.0.

astro-ph.HE

Evidence for the binary nature of the long-period radio transient ASKAP/DART J1832-0911

Long-period transients are a class of periodic pulsed radio source repeating on the minute to hour timescale. Recently, an increasing number of them are being identified as binary systems, specifically white dwarfs with low-mass main-sequence companions. In this work we analyse the most luminous long-period transient discovered to date, ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, with two years of radio data, and propose that it, too, may be a white dwarf system, although in a far more compact orbit than the aforementioned. The pulses are composed of quasi-periodic components which evolve in a systematic way over days and months. The source is highly linearly or elliptically polarised and its brightness enabled very high signal-to-noise measurement of the time-resolved Faraday rotation measure, which was found to vary across pulse phase. The linear polarisation position angle, circular polarised fraction, and spectral index also varied systematically in ways not typical of pulsars and magnetars. We show that an ultra-compact asynchronous polar explains much of the phenomenology of ASKAP/DART J1832-0911, in particular the evolution of the pulse morphology, rotation measure variation, and periodic X-ray emission, although we cannot conclusively prove a binary nature. However, our model makes testable predictions.

astro-ph.HE

Nonbirefringent model of orthogonal polarization modes in radio pulsars - New view on S swing and mode structure in pulsar beam

Two orthogonal polarization modes observed in radio pulsar signals have long been attributed to proper modes of wave oscillation in strongly magnetized plasma. Yet it has been shown recently that they show up readily for extended emission regions that produce incoherently-superposed polarization signal. In this paper we present a two-dimensional polarization model based on incoherent superposition of radio signals. The model involves a single proper mode, say the O mode, but leads to the appearance of two orthogonal polarization tracks and naturally produces the triple form of polarization mode segregation in averaged profiles (central mode flanked on boths sides by another mode), as well as the displacement of modes in latitude, previously inferred from beam mapping. In the case of conal emission regions, the modelled polarization tends to mimic general polarization properties of the rotating vector model (RVM). However, the reason for this is the symmetry of the emission region - not the usual projection of dipolar magnetic azimuths. Thus the emerging RVM parameters reveal geometry of the emission region, not of the dipolar magnetic field. The results strongly support the vital role of nonbirefringent modal effects in radio pulsar profiles. Two proper modes may not be needed to explain observations of two orthogonal polarization tracks.

astro-ph.HE