English

High Energy Gamma Rays from Nebulae Associated with Extragalactic Microquasars and Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2017-02-22 v1

Abstract

In the extragalactic sky, microquasars and ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are known as energetic compact objects locating at off-nucleus positions in galaxies. Some of these objects are associated with expanding bubbles with a velocity of 80-250 km s1{\rm km~s^{-1}}. We investigate the shock acceleration of particles in those expanding nebulae. The nebulae having fast expansion velocity 120 km s1\gtrsim120~{\rm km~s^{-1}} are able to accelerate cosmic rays up to 100\sim100 TeV. If 10% of the shock kinetic energy goes into particle acceleration, powerful nebulae such as the microquasar S26 in NGC 7793 would emit gamma rays up to several tens TeV with a photon index of 2\sim2. These nebulae will be good targets for future Cherenkov Telescope Array observations given its sensitivity and angular resolution. They would also contribute to 7\sim7% of the unresolved cosmic gamma-ray background radiation at 0.1 GeV\ge0.1~{\rm GeV}. In contrast, particle acceleration in slowly expanding nebulae 120 km s1\lesssim120~{\rm km~s^{-1}} would be less efficient due to ion-neutral collisions and result in softer spectra at 10\gtrsim10 GeV.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1701.08882,
  title  = {High Energy Gamma Rays from Nebulae Associated with Extragalactic Microquasars and Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources},
  author = {Yoshiyuki Inoue and Shiu-Hang Lee and Yasuyuki T. Tanaka and Shogo B. Kobayashi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1701.08882},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

7 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics