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LONG-TERM STABILITY OF NONTHERMAL X-RAY MODULATION IN THE GAMMA-RAY BINARY LS 5039

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Tetsuichi Kishishita1,2, Takaaki Tanaka3, Yasunobu Uchiyama3,4 and Tadayuki Takahashi1,2

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We report on long-term stability of X-ray modulation apparently synchronized with an orbital period of 3.9 days in the γ-ray binary LS 5039. Recent observations with the Suzaku satellite in the year 2007, which continuously covered more than one orbital period, have provided us with detailed characterization of X-ray flux and spectral shape as a function of orbital phase. Motivated by the results from Suzaku, we have re-analyzed the X-ray data obtained with ASCA, XMM-Newton, and Chandra between 1999 and 2005, to investigate long-term behavior of LS 5039 in the X-ray band. We found that the modulation curves in 1999-2007 are surprisingly stable. Even fine structures in the light curves such as spikes and dips are found to be quite similar from one orbit to another. The spectral characteristics observed in the past are consistent with those seen with Suzaku for some orbital phase segments. We suggest that magnetohydrodynamical collisions between the relativistic outflow from a compact object and the stellar wind from the O star explain the clock-like nonthermal X-ray emission over eight years through remarkably stable production of high-energy particles near the binary system.


Keywords

radiation mechanisms: non-thermal; X-rays: binaries; X-rays: individual (LS 5039)


PACS

97.80.Jp X-ray binaries

95.30.Qd Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas

95.85.Nv X-ray

97.10.Ri Luminosities; magnitudes; effective temperatures, colors, and spectral classification

97.10.Me Mass loss and stellar winds

Subjects

Plasma physics

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 1 (2009 May 20)

Received 2009 February 6, accepted for publication 2009 April 3

Published 2009 April 27



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