The Two-Peak Model of LS I +61303: Radio Spectral Index Analysis

TL;DR

This paper uses radio spectral index analysis over seven years to support the two-peak accretion/ejection model of LSI+61303, linking radio and gamma-ray emissions and revealing the activity pattern around periastron.

Contribution

It provides the first observational radio evidence supporting the two-peak model of LSI+61303 using spectral index analysis, linking radio and gamma-ray emissions.

Findings

Double-peaked radio spectral index curve along the orbit.

Radio spectral index correlates with the two-peak accretion/ejection model.

Suggested new hypothesis on electron population responsible for gamma-ray emission.

Abstract

The most puzzling aspect of the radio emission from LSI+61303 is that the large periodic radio outburst, with period equal to the orbital one, occurs very displaced from periastron passage, nearly at apoastron. In 1992, Taylor, one of the discoverers of this source, together with his collaborators proposed a model of a compact object in an eccentric orbit accreting from the equatorial wind of the Be star primary. The application of this model by Marti & Paredes (1995) predicts one ejection at periastron and a second more displaced ejection along the orbit. The first ejection should correspond to weak radio emission, because of strong inverse Compton losses of the emitting electrons due to the proximity to the hot Be star, whereas the second ejection, quite displaced from the star, would correspond to a strong radio outburst, that one indeed observed. Corroborated along the years by numerical computations, simulations and gamma-ray observations, until now this two-peak model could not be proved in the radio band, because of the negligible emission around periastron. We show here, that the radio spectral index based on the ratio of flux densities is the unique tool to monitor activity of LSI+61303 in the radio band around periastron. The analysis of the radio spectral index over almost 7 years of Green Bank Interferometer data results in a clear double-peaked spectral index curve along the orbit. This result gives finally observational support at radiowavelengths to the two-peak accretion/ejection model for LSI+61303. Moreover, the here shown comparison of the two-peak curves - the radio spectral index curve and the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray curve - indicates a new interesting hypothesis on the electron population responsible for the gamma-ray emission.