Hydrodynamics of interaction of pulsar and stellar winds and its impact on the high energy radiation of binary pulsar systems

Abstract

The hydrodynamics of the interaction of pulsar and stellar winds in binary systems harboring a pulsar and its impact on the nonthermal radiation of the binary pulsar PSR B1259-63/SS2883 is discussed. The collision of an ultrarelativistic pulsar wind with a nonrelativistic stellar outflow results in significant bulk acceleration of the shocked material from the pulsar wind. Already at distances comparable to the size of the binary system, the Lorentz factor of the shocked flow can be as large as $\gamma$~4. This results in significant anisotropy of the inverse Compton radiation of accelerated electrons. Because of the Doppler boosting of the produced radiation, one should expect a variable gamma-ray signal from the system. In particular, this effect may naturally explain the reported tendency of a decrease of TeV gamma-ray flux close to the periastron. The modeling of the interaction of pulsar and stellar winds allows self-consistent calculations of adiabatic losses. Our results show that adiabatic losses dominate over the radiative losses. These results have direct impact on the orbital variability of radio, X-ray and gamma-ray signals detected from the binary pulsar PSR 1259-63/SS2883.

4 pages, 4 figures; based on poster presentation at "High Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows", Dublin, Sept. 2007; accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern Physics D

References in corpus (8)

• Variable Very High Energy Gamma-ray Emission from the Microquasar LS I +61 303
• 3.9 day orbital modulation in the TeV gamma-ray flux and spectrum from the X-ray binary LS 5039
• Very High Energy Gamma-ray Radiation from the Stellar-mass Black Hole Cygnus X-1
• Modeling interaction of relativistic and nonrelativistic winds in binary system PSR 1259-63/SS2883. I.Hydrodynamical limit
• TeV lightcurve of PSR B1259-63/SS2883
• XMM-Newton observations of PSr B1259-63 near the 2004 periastron passage
• The 2000 Periastron Passage of PSR B1259-63
• Hadronic model for radio-to-TeV gamma-ray emission from PSR B1259-63

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Study of the Spectral and Temporal Characteristics of X-Ray Emission of the Gamma-Ray Binary LS 5039 with Suzaku
• Simulations of stellar/pulsar wind interaction along one full orbit
• Modelling the light curves of PSR B1259-63/LS 2883-II.The effects of anisotropic pulsar wind and Doppler-boosting
• Unraveling the high-energy emission components of gamma-ray binaries
• Modelling interaction of relativistic and non-relativistic winds in binary system PSR B1259-63/SS2883 - II. Impact of magnetization and anisotropy of the pulsar wind
• Large-scale flow dynamics and radiation in pulsar gamma-ray binaries
• Suzaku Observations of PSR B1259-63: A New Manifestation of Relativistic Pulsar Wind
• Direct Wind Accretion and Jet Launch in Binary Systems
• On the origin of correlated X-ray/VHE emission from LS I +61 303
• Overview of non-transient gamma-ray binaries and prospects for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Probing the Pulsar Wind in the gamma-ray Binary System PSR B1259-63/SS 2883
• Gamma Ray Signal from the Pulsar Wind in the Binary Pulsar system PSR B1259-63/LS2883
• Investigation of the energy dependence of the orbital light curve in LS 5039
• TeV Flux modulation in PSR B1259-63/LS 2883
• Radio emission from high-mass binaries with non-accreting pulsars