Models for gamma-ray production in low-mass microquasars

TL;DR

This paper models gamma-ray emission in low-mass microquasars, highlighting the role of synchrotron radiation and hadronic processes in producing high-energy spectra.

Contribution

It introduces a model for gamma-ray production in low-mass microquasars emphasizing proton synchrotron emission and secondary pair contributions.

Findings

High-energy tail from photohadronic and IC interactions

Dominance of hadronic radiation in gamma-ray emission

Secondary pairs contribute to the spectrum

Abstract

Unlike high-mass gamma-ray binaries, low-mass microquasars lack external sources of radiation and matter that could produce high-energy emission through interactions with relativistic particles. In this work we consider the synchrotron emission of protons and leptons that populate the jet of a low-mass microquasar. In our model photohadronic and inverse Compton (IC) interactions with synchrotron photons produced by both protons and leptons result in a high-energy tail of the spectrum. We also estimate the contribution from secondary pairs injected through photopair production. The high-energy emission is dominated by radiation of hadronic origin, so we can call these objects proton microquasars.