Episodic Transient Gamma-Ray Emission from the Microquasar Cygnus X-1

TL;DR

This study reports a significant transient gamma-ray emission from Cygnus X-1 during a hard spectral state, revealing that short-term gamma-ray flares can occur in such states and challenging existing models.

Contribution

First detection of a transient gamma-ray flare from Cygnus X-1 during a hard state, providing new insights into high-energy processes in microquasars.

Findings

Detected a 1-2 day gamma-ray flare in October 2009

Established a spectral cutoff above 1 MeV in the hard state

Set an upper limit for persistent gamma-ray emission

Abstract

Cygnus X-1 is the archetypal black hole (BH) binary system in our Galaxy. We report the main results of an extensive search for transient gamma-ray emission from Cygnus X-1 carried out in the energy range 100 MeV - 3 GeV by the AGILE satellite, during the period 2007 July - 2009 October. The total exposure time is about 300 days, during which the source was in the "hard" X-ray spectral state. We divided the observing intervals in 2 or 4 week periods, and searched for transient and persistent emission. We report an episode of significant transient gamma-ray emission detected on 2009, October 16 in a position compatible with Cygnus X-1 optical position. This episode, occurred during a hard spectral state of Cygnus X-1, shows that a 1-2 day time variable emission above 100 MeV can be produced during hard spectral states, having important theoretical implications for current Comptonization models for Cygnus X-1 and other microquasars. Except for this one short timescale episode, no significant gamma-ray emission was detected by AGILE. By integrating all available data we obtain a 2$\sigma$ upper limit for the total integrated flux of $F_{\gamma,U.L.} = 3 \times 10^{-8} \rm ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ in the energy range 100 MeV - 3 GeV. We then clearly establish the existence of a spectral cutoff in the energy range 1-100 MeV that applies to the typical hard state outside the flaring period and that confirms the historically known spectral cutoff above 1 MeV.