Gamma-Ray Emission from Microquasars

Abstract

Microquasars, X-ray binary systems that generate relativistic jets, were discovered in our Galaxy in the last decade of the XXth century. Their name indicates that they are manifestations of the same physics as quasars but on a completely different scale. Parallel to this discovery, the EGRET instrument on board of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detected 271 point like gamma-ray sources 170 of which were not clearly identified with known objects. This marked the beginning of gamma-ray source population studies in the Galaxy. We present in this thesis models for gamma-ray production in microquasars with the aim to propose them as possible parent populations for different groups of EGRET unidentified sources. These models are developed for a variety of scenarios taking into account several possible combinations, i.e. black holes or neutron stars as the compact object, low mass or high mass stellar companions, as well as leptonic or hadronic gamma-ray production processes. We also show that the presented models for gamma-rays emitting microquasars can be used to explain observations from well known sources that are detected in energy ranges other than EGRET's. Finally, we include an alternative gamma-ray producing situation that does not involve microquasars but a specific unidentified EGRET source possibly linked to a magnetized accreting pulsar.