Multi-wavelength observations of the binary system PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 around the 2010-2011 periastron passage

Abstract

We report on broad multi-wavelength observations of the 2010-2011 periastron passage of the gamma-ray loud binary system PSR B1259-63. High resolution interferometric radio observations establish extended radio emission trailing the position of the pulsar. Observations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal GeV gamma-ray flaring activity of the system, reaching the spin-down luminosity of the pulsar, around 30 days after periastron. There are no clear signatures of variability at radio, X-ray and TeV energies at the time of the GeV flare. Variability around periastron in the H$\alpha$ emission line, can be interpreted as the gravitational interaction between the pulsar and the circumstellar disk. The equivalent width of the H$\alpha$ grows from a few days before periastron until a few days later, and decreases again between 18 and 46 days after periastron. In near infrared we observe the similar decrease of the equivalent width of Br$\gamma$ line between the 40th and 117th day after the periastron. For the idealized disk, the variability of the H$\alpha$ line represents the variability of the mass and size of the disk. We discuss possible physical relations between the state of the disk and GeV emission under assumption that GeV flare is directly related to the decrease of the disk size.

accepted to MNRAS

References in corpus (6)

• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• Gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula
• Discovery of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the Binary System PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 Around Periastron with Fermi
• Pulsar Timing for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
• The B and Be Star Population of NGC 3766
• Superorbital modulation of X-ray emission from gamma-ray binary LSI +61 303

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Pulsar-Wind Nebulae: Recent Progress in Observations and Theory
• Multi-wavelength Observations of the Binary System PSR B1259-63/LS~2883 around the 2014 Periastron Passage
• The geometric distance and binary orbit of PSR B1259-63
• Gamma-ray flare activity from PSR B1259-63 during 2014 periastron passage and comparison to its 2010 passage
• A Luminous and Highly-variable Gamma-ray Flare Following the 2017 Periastron of PSR B1259-63/LS 2883
• Physical properties of the gamma-ray binary LS 5039 through low and high frequency radio observations
• The Black Hole Candidate LSI+61303
• The hour-timescale GeV flares of PSR B1259-63 in 2017
• The broad-band radio spectrum of LSI+61303 in outburst
• Evolution of the extended X-ray emission from the PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 binary in the 2014-2017 binary cycle
• Superorbital modulation at GeV energies in the gamma-ray binary LS I +61 303
• X-ray and Radio Variabilities of PSR J2032+4127 near Periastron
• Fermi Study of 5-300 GeV emission from the high-mass pulsar binary PSR B1259-63/LS 2883
• The likely Fermi detection of the Be X-ray binary GRO J1008-57: hint for gamma-ray production in neutron-star X-ray binaries
• On the timing behavior of PSR B1259-63 under the propeller torque from a transient accretion disc
• Modelling the thermal absorption and radio spectra of the binary pulsar B1259-63