The GeV emission of PSR B1259-63 during its last three periastron passages observed by Fermi-LAT

Abstract

PSR B1259-63 is a $\gamma$-ray emitting high mass X-ray binary system, in which the compact object is a millisecond pulsar. The system has an orbital period of 1236.7 d and shows peculiar $\gamma$-ray flares when the neutron star moves out of the stellar disk of the companion star. The $\gamma$-ray flare events were firstly discovered by using Fermi-LAT around the 2010 periastron passage, which was repeated for the 2014 and 2017 periastron passages. We analyze the Fermi-LAT data for all the three periastron passages and found that in each flare the energy spectrum can be represented well by a simple power law. The $\gamma$-ray light curves show that in 2010 and 2014 after each periastron there are two main flares, but in 2017 there are four flares including one precursor about 10 d after the periastron passage. The first main flares in 2010 and 2014 are located at around 35 d after the periastron passage, and the main flare in 2014 is delayed by roughly 1.7 d with respect to that in 2010. In the 2017 flare, the source shows a precursor about 10 d after the periastron passage, but the following two flares become weaker and lag behind those in 2010 by roughly 5 d. The strongest flares in 2017 occurred 58 d and 70 d after the periastron passage. These results challenge the previous models.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in RAA

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars
• New insight into the origin of the GeV flare in the binary system PSR B1259-63 from the 2017 periastron passage
• Modelling the interaction between relativistic and non-relativistic winds in binary pulsar systems: strong magnetization of the pulsar wind
• H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT observations of PSR B1259-63/LS 2883 during its 2014 and 2017 periastron passages
• Modelling the multi-wavelength emissions from PSR B1259-63/LS 2883: the effects of the stellar disc on shock radiations
• Fermi-LAT Observation of PSR B1259-63 during Its 2021 Periastron Passage
• The Galactic high mass X-ray binary population with Fermi -LAT
• A diagnostic on the orbital spectrum of LS 5039 with Fermi-LAT