Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2011-09-23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
The Astrophysical Journal, in press
Scientific paper
We report on the Swift-BAT detection of a short burst from the direction of the TeV binary LS I +61 303, resembling those generally labelled as magnetar-like. We show that it is likely that the short burst was indeed originating from LS I +61 303 (although we cannot totally exclude the improbable presence of a far-away line-of-sight magnetar) and that it is a different phenomena with respect to the previously-observed ks-long flares from this system. Accepting as a hypothesis that LS I +61 303 is the first magnetar detected in a binary system, we study which are the implications. We find that a magnetar-composed LS I +61 303-system would most likely be (i.e., for usual magnetar parameters and mass-loss rate) subject to a flip-flop behavior, from a rotational powered regime (in apastron) to a propeller regime (in periastron) along each of the LS I +61 303, eccentric orbital motion. We prove that whereas near apastron an inter-wind shock can lead to the normally observed LS I +61 303behavior, with TeV emission, the periastron propeller is expected to efficiently accelerate particles only to sub-TeV energies. This flip-flop scenario would explain the system's behavior where a recurrent TeV emission was seen appearing near apastron only, the anti-correlation of GeV and TeV emission, and the long-term TeV variability (which seems correlated to LS I +61 303's super-orbital period), including the appearance of a low TeV-state. Finally, we qualitatively put the multi-wavelength phenomenology in context of our proposed model, and make some predictions for further testing.
Chen Yu-peng
Esposito Paolo
Li Jian
Rea Nanda
Torres Diego F.
No associations
LandOfFree
A magnetar-like event from LS I +61 303 and its nature as a gamma-ray binary does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A magnetar-like event from LS I +61 303 and its nature as a gamma-ray binary, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A magnetar-like event from LS I +61 303 and its nature as a gamma-ray binary will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-724036