Cygnus X-3 as semi-hidden PeVatron
arXiv:2503.11448 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202554701
Abstract
The high-mass X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 has been suggested for a long time to be a source of high-energy photons and neutrinos. In view of the increased sensitivity of current experiments, we examine the acceleration and interactions of high-energy cosmic rays (CRs) in this binary system, assuming that the compact object is a black hole. Using a test-particle approach in a Monte-Carlo framework, we employ as the basic CR acceleration mechanisms magnetic reconnection or second-order Fermi and diffusive shock acceleration. We find that in all three scenarios CRs can be accelerated beyond PeV energies. High-energy photons and neutrinos are produced as secondaries in photo-hadronic interactions of CRs on X-ray photons and in the scattering on gas from the wind of the companion star. Normalising the predicted photon flux to the excess flux observed by LHAASO at energies above PeV in the direction of Cygnus X-3, a CR acceleration efficiency of is sufficient to power the required CR luminosity. Our results suggest that the PeV photon flux from Cygnus X-3 could be in a bright phase significantly increased relative to the average flux of the last years.
7 pages, 8 pdf figures; v2: minor clarifications, accepted in A&A
References in corpus (31)
- The extragalactic optical-infrared background radiations, their time evolution and the cosmic photon-photon opacity
- Monte Carlo treatment of hadronic interactions in enhanced Pomeron scheme: I. QGSJET-II model
- Monte-Carlo simulations of photohadronic processes in astrophysics
- Hadronic gamma-ray emission from windy microquasars
- The interplay of magnetically-dominated turbulence and magnetic reconnection in producing nonthermal particles
- A One-sided, Highly Relativistic Jet from Cygnus X-3
- Time-sequenced Multi-Radio-Frequency Observations of Cygnus X-3 in Flare
- Accretion Processes On a Black Hole
- Particle Acceleration in Turbulence and Weakly Stochastic Reconnection
- Absorption of Very High Energy Gamma Rays in the Milky Way
- An Ultrahigh-energy -ray Bubble Powered by a Super PeVatron
- Orbital dynamics of Cygnus X-3
- Effects of the stellar wind on X-ray spectra of Cygnus X-3
- Magic constraints on Gamma-ray emission from Cygnus X-3
- The nature of the hard state of Cygnus X-3
- The hypersoft state of Cygnus X-3 - A key to jet quenching in X-ray binaries?
- Cygnus X-3 revealed as a Galactic ultraluminous X-ray source by IXPE
- Gemini/GNIRS infrared spectroscopy of the Wolf-Rayet stellar wind in Cygnus X-3
- High energy neutrino yields from astrophysical sources II: Magnetized sources
- Doppler Modulation of X-ray lines in Cygnus X-3
- The AGILE monitoring of Cygnus X-3: transient gamma-ray emission and spectral constraints
- A magnetic reconnection model for explaining the multi-wavelength emission of the microquasars Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3
- Absorption of high-energy gamma rays in Cygnus X-3
- Hadronic Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Emission from Cygnus X-3
- Search for High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Galactic X-ray Binaries with IceCube
- Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Accelerated by Magnetically Dominated Turbulence
- Wind suppression by X-rays in Cygnus X-3
- Estimation of the neutrino flux and resulting constraints on hadronic emission models for Cyg X-3 using AGILE data
- INTEGRAL discovery of a high-energy tail in the microquasar Cygnus X-3
- Microquasar Cyg X-3 -- a unique jet-wind neutrino factory?
- Major and Minor Flares on Cygnus X-3 Revisited