High-energy emission of fast rotating white dwarfs

Abstract

The process of energy release in the magnetosphere of a fast rotating, magnetized white dwarf can be explained in terms of the canonical spin-powered pulsar model. Applying this model to the white dwarf companion of the low mass close binary AE Aquarii leads us to the following conclusions. First, the system acts as an accelerator of charged particles whose energy is limited to E_p < 3 TeV and which are ejected from the magnetosphere of the primary with the rate L_kin < 10^{32} erg/s. Due to the curvature radiation of the accelerated primary electrons the system should appear as a source of soft gamma-rays (~ 100 keV) with the luminosity < 3x10^{27} erg/s. The TeV emission of the system is dominated by the inverse Compton scattering of optical photons on the ultrarelativistic electrons. The optical photons are mainly contributed by the normal companion and the stream of material flowing through the magnetosphere of the white dwarf. The luminosity of the TeV source depends on the state of the system (flaring/quiet) and is limited to < 5x10^{29} erg/s. These results allow us to understand a lack of success in searching for the high-energy emission of AE Aqr with the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and the Whipple Observatory.

arXiv comment8 pages, accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (5)

• The Status of the H.E.S.S. Project
• A Study of the X-Ray Emission of Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable Ae Aquarii
• On the mass transfer in AE Aquarii
• Glitches in the X-Ray Pulsar 1e 2259+586
• Can the 33s pulsations observed from AE Aquarii be explained in terms of accretion onto the white dwarf surface?

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• Hadronic model for the non-thermal radiation from the binary system AR~Scorpii
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• MAGIC search for VHE $\gamma$-ray emission from AE Aquarii in a multiwavelength context