Related papers: Binaries, microquasars and GLAST
I present an overview of past, present and future research on microquasars and jets, showing that microquasars, i.e. galactic jet sources, are among the best laboratories for high energy phenomena and astroparticle physics. After reminding…
The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is a next generation high energy gamma-ray observatory due for launch in Fall 2007. The primary instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT), which will measure gamma-ray flux and spectra…
High-mass microquasars are binary systems consisting of a massive star and an accreting compact object from which relativistic jets are launched. There is considerable observational evidence that winds of massive stars are clumpy.…
Advances in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy have opened a new window on our universe and revealed a wide variety of binaries composed of a compact object and a Be star. In Be X-ray binaries, a neutron star accretes the Be disk and truncates…
During last years a few massive binary systems have been detected in the TeV gamma-rays. This gamma-ray emission is clearly modulated with the orbital periods of these binaries suggesting its origin inside the binary system. In this paper…
GLAST, a detector for cosmic gamma rays in the range from 20 MeV to 300 GeV, will be launched in space in 2005. Breakthroughs are expected in particular in the study of particle acceleration mechanisms in space and of gamma ray bursts, and…
Three binaries are now established sources of emission at very high energies (>1e11 eV). They are composed of a massive star and a compact object. The emission can be due to the interaction of the relativistic wind from a young ms pulsar…
The three basic ingredients - a spinning compact object, an accretion disc and a collimated relativistic jet - make microquasars a galactic scaled-down version of the radio-loud AGN. That explains the large interest attributed to this new…
The present status and understanding of the "spectral sequence" of blazars is discussed in the perspective of the upcoming GLAST launch. The vast improvement in sensitivity will allow to i) determine more objectively the "average" gamma-ray…
In the subclass of high-mass X-ray binaries known as "microquasars", relativistic hadrons in the jets launched by the compact object can interact with cold protons from the star's radiatively driven wind, producing pions that then quickly…
Massive X-ray binaries are formed by a compact object that accretes matter from the stellar wind of an early-type donor star. In some of these systems, called microquasars, relativistic jets are launched from the surroundings of the compact…
A population of unidentified gamma-ray sources is forming a structure resembling a halo around the Galactic center. These sources are highly variable, and hence they should be associated with compact objects. Microquasars are objects…
Blazars, the extreme family of AGN, can be strong gamma-ray emitters and constitute the largest fraction of identified point sources of EGRET. The next Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) is a high energy (30MeV-300GeV) gamma-ray…
Microquasars are X-ray binary systems with non-thermal radio emission originated in jet-like features. They are attractive sites for gamma-ray production, since relativistic particles in the jet should traverse locally strong both photon…
The observed spectra of blazars, their intrinsic emission, and the underlying populations of radiating particles are intimately related. The use of these sources as probes of the extragalactic infrared background, a prospect propelled by…
The exclusive Galactic gamma-ray club has opened up to new members. Supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, and massive binary systems hosting a compact object have recently joined the young pulsars as firmly established sources of gamma…
The discovery of non-thermal X-ray emission from the jets of some X-ray binaries, and especially the discovery of GeV-TeV gamma-rays in some of them, provide a clear evidence of very efficient acceleration of particles to multi-TeV energies…
Gamma-ray binaries are systems composed of a massive star and a compact object that produce emission from radio to very high energy gamma-rays. LS I +61 303 is one of the only six gamma-ray binaries discovered so far. It is thought that…
Young energetic pulsars will likely be the largest class of Galactic sources observed by GLAST, with many hundreds detected. Many will be unknown as radio pulsars, making pulsation detection dependent on radio and/or x-ray observations or…
The three basic ingredients - a spinning compact object, an accretion disc and a collimated relativistic jet - make microquasars a galactic scaled-down version of the radio-loud AGN. That explains the large interest attributed to this new…