Very high energy radiation from binary system PSR B1259-63-SS 2883 [Elektronische Ressource] / presented by Hnatic Slavomir

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Publié par	ruprecht-karls-universitat_heidelberg
Publié le	01 janvier 2007
Nombre de lectures	18
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Dissertation
submitted to the
Combined Faculties for the Natural Sciences and for Mathematics
of the Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg, Germany
for the degree of
Doctor of Natural Sciences
presented by
Diplom-Phys.: Hnatic Slavomir
born in: Sankt Petersburg, Russia
Oral examination: 2 May 2007Very High Energy Radiation From
Binary System PSR B1259-63/SS 2883
Referees: Prof. Dr. Stefan Wagner
Prof. Dr. Matthias Bartelmanni
Abstract
The inverse Compton (IC) scattering of ultrarelativistic electrons accelerated at the pulsar wind termi-
nation shock is believed to be responsible for TeV gamma-ray signal reported from the binary system PSR
B1259-63/SS2883. While this process can explain the energy spectrum of the observed TeV emission, the
gamma-ray fluxes detected by HESS at different epochs do not agree with the published theoretical pre-
dictions of the TeV lightcurve. In this work, evolution of the energy spectra of relativistic electrons under
different assumptions about the acceleration and energy-loss rates of electrons, is studied. Consequently, it is
demonstrated that the observed TeV lightcurve can be explained (i) by adiabatic losses which dominate over
theentire trajectory ofthepulsar with asignificant increase towards theperiastron, or (ii)bysub-TeVcutoffs
in the energy spectra of electrons due to the enhanced rate of Compton losses close to the periastron. The
calculated spectral and temporal characteristics of the TeV radiation provide conclusive tests to distinguish
between these two working hypotheses.
The Comptondeceleration oftheelectron-positron pulsarwindcontributestothedecrease ofthenonther-
mal power released in the accelerated electrons after the wind termination, and thus to the reduction of the
IC and synchrotron components of radiation near the periastron. Although this effect alone cannot explain
the observed TeV and X-ray lightcurves, the Comptonization of the cold ultrarelativistic wind leads to the
formation of gamma-radiation with a line-type energy spectrum. While the HESS data already constrain the
6Lorentz factor of the wind, Γ≤10 , future observations of this object with GLASTshould allow a deep probe
4 6of the wind Lorentz factor in the range between 10 and 10 .
Kurzfassung
Es wird angenommen, dass die inverseCompton Streuungvonultra-relativistischen Elektronen, die durch
den Pulsar Wind Termination Shock beschleunigt werden, verantwortlich ist fu¨r das TEV Gamma-Strahlungs
Signal, dass von dem bin¨aren System PSR B1259-63/SS2883 berichtet wurde. Obwohl dieser Prozess das En-
ergiespektrumderbeobachtetenTeVEmissionerkl¨art,stimmendievonHESSinanderenZeitr¨aumengemesse-
nen Gamma-Strahlen-Flu¨sse nicht mit den ver¨offentlichten, theoretisch berechneten, Vorhersagen fu¨r die TeV
Lichtkurve u¨berein. In dieser Arbeit werden die Ver¨anderungen untersucht, welche die Energie-Spektren der
relativistischen Elektronen, bei verschiedenen Annahmen zu der Beschleunigung und dem Energie-Verlust der
Elektronen, durchlaufen. Mithin wird gezeigt, dass die beobachtete TeV Lichtkurve erkl¨art werden kann, (i)
durch auf der gesamten Umlaufbahn des Pulsars dominierende adiabatische Verluste, mit einem signifikanten
AnstiegnahedesPeriastron, oder(ii)durchsub-TeVCutoffs imEnergie-SpektrumderElektronen,verursacht
durch verst¨arkte Compton-Verluste nahe am Periastron. Die berechneten spektralen und zeitlichen Charak-
teristiken der TeV Strahlung liefern u¨berzeugende Tests, um zwischen diesen beiden Arbeitshypothesen zu
unterscheiden.
Die Compton-Abbremsung des pulsaren Elektron-Positron Windes tr¨agt zu der Abnahme der, von den
beschleunigten Elektronen, nach der Wind Termination, abgegebenen, nicht-thermischen Leistung bei, und
damit auch zu der Abnahme der IC und Synchrotron Komponenten der Strahlung nahe am Periastron.
Obwohl dieser Effekt allein nicht die beobachteten TeV und R¨ontgen Lichtkurven erkl¨aren kann, fu¨hrt die
Comptonisierung des kalten ultra-relativistischen Windes zu einer Bildung von Gamma-Strahlung mit einem
6linien-artigen Energie-Spektrum. W¨ahrend die HESS Daten den Lorentz-Faktor des Windes auf Γ ≤ 10
¨beschr¨anken, sollten zuku¨nftige Beobachtungen dieses Objekts mit GLAST genauere Uberpruefungen des
4 6Lorentz-Faktors, im Bereich zwischen 10 und 10 , erlauben.Contents
Abstract i
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Binary pulsars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Be stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Binary pulsar PSR B1259-63/SS 2883: observational results . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 Radiation processes 13
2.1 Inverse Compton scattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Photon-photon pair production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Synchrotron radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Bremsstrahlung of relativistic electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
02.5 -decay gamma-rays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.6 Energy losses of electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Geometry of PSR B1259-63/SS 2883 27
3.1 The orbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 Calculation of the termination shock radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 Geometry of the pulsar wind cavity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Magnetic field at the shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.5 Diffusive shock acceleration of electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 Gamma and X-rays from binary PSR B1259-63/SS 2883 43
4.1 Basic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Adiabatic losses and escape of electrons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3 Maximum energy of electrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.4 Comptonization of the unshocked wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5 Adiabatic expansion of plasma 71
5.1 Formulation of the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.2 Electron spectrum formation equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.3 Γ-profile of bulk motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4 Transformation of the distribution functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.5 Photon field in boosted frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.6 Spectra of electrons and energy spectra of radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6 Summary and conclusion 85
Acknowledgments 89
A Scattering rates. 91
iiiiv CONTENTS
B Solution of kinetic equation 93
B.1 Green’s function approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Chapter 1
Introduction
A large fraction of stars in our Galaxy exist in the form of binary systems, i.e. systems
consisting of two stars orbiting around their center of mass. The sub-class of binaries, which
contain a pulsar and a normal optical star, is called binary pulsars. About a hundred of such
objects are found in our Galaxy.
Binary pulsar PSR B1259-63 was initially discovered in the radio survey of Galactic plane
in 1992 (Johnston et al., 1992). PSR B1259-63/SS 2883 is a unique system with a pulsar
orbitinginahighlyeccentric orbitaroundamassive andverybrightBestar SS2883. In2004
this system became the first detected galactic source of variable TeV emission (Aharonian et
al., 2005).
The particles generating the very high energy (VHE) emission are believed to come from
the pulsar magnetosphere. Generally, due to observed decrease in their rotation velocity, the
lost energy of pulsars is believed to result in formation of an ultrarelativistic cold electron-
1positron wind. This wind in principle can produce VHE photons via its interaction with
the external medium, which in the case of PSR B1259-63 comes from the companion star SS
2883, characterized by an anisotropic mass outflow centered in its equatorial plane. The in-
teraction of the pulsar wind and stellar outflow results in a standing shock, which is believed
to thermalize pulsar electrons and accellerate them to TeV energies.
InsuchascenarioseveralmechanismscanberesponsiblefortheproductionofVHEemission,
such as hadronic interactions and bremsstrahlung in the stellar wind, or Inverse Compton
(IC) scattering of pulsar electrons with the soft photon field of a Be star.
Although, dueto lack ofdata fromcompanionSS2883, thehadronicmodelsarenotexcluded
(Kawachi etal., 2004), ICscattering appearstobethemostplausible-rayproductionmech-
anism. Kirk et al. (1999) were able to explain absolute fluxes and energy spectra in the
framework of the IC model, however the observed TeV lightcurve is significantly different
from early predictions.
In the proposed model, the formed standing shock divides the interaction region into two
zones with significantly different electron distributions, which produce VHE photons via in-
teraction with starlight. While the assumption about the electron spectrum in the pre-shock
region is rather trivial, the case of the formed post-shock spectrum is more complicated. In
the latter, the shape of the electron spectrum differs for the d