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arxiv: 1111.0878 · v2 · pith:JVMSZPNDnew · submitted 2011-11-03 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

The gamma-ray emitting region of the jet in Cyg X-3

classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords electronsgamma-raypowerobservedfactorlorentzmagneticscattering
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We study models of the gamma-ray emission of Cyg X-3 observed by Fermi. We calculate the average X-ray spectrum during the gamma-ray active periods. Then, we calculate spectra from Compton scattering of a photon beam into a given direction by isotropic relativistic electrons with a power-law distribution, both based on the Klein-Nishina cross section and in the Thomson limit. Applying the results to scattering of stellar blackbody radiation in the inner jet of Cyg X-3, we find that a low-energy break in the electron distribution at a Lorentz factor of ~ 300--1000 is required by the shape of the observed X-ray/gamma-ray spectrum in order to avoid overproducing the observed X-ray flux. The electrons giving rise to the observed \g-rays are efficiently cooled by Compton scattering, and the power-law index of the acceleration process is ~ 2.5--3. The bulk Lorentz factor of the jet and the kinetic power before the dissipation region depend on the fraction of the dissipation power supplied to the electrons; if it is ~ 1/2, the Lorentz factor is ~ 2.5, and the kinetic power is ~ 10^38 erg/s, which represents a firm lower limit on the jet power, and is comparable to the bolometric luminosity of Cyg X-3. Most of the power supplied to the electrons is radiated. The broad band spectrum constrains the synchrotron and self-Compton emission from the gamma-ray emitting electrons, which requires the magnetic field to be relatively weak, with the magnetic energy density < a few times 10^-3 of that in the electrons. The actual value of the magnetic field strength can be inferred from a future simultaneous measurement of the IR and gamma-ray fluxes.

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Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Cygnus X-3: A variable petaelectronvolt gamma-ray source

    astro-ph.HE 2025-12 conditional novelty 8.0

    Cygnus X-3 produces variable gamma rays up to 3.7 PeV, consistent with photomeson production in its relativistic jet requiring protons accelerated to tens of PeV.