VHE Observations of Galactic binary systems with VERITAS

TL;DR

This paper reports on VERITAS observations of galactic binary systems emitting very-high-energy gamma rays, highlighting variability linked to orbital periods and discussing results in the context of multi-wavelength data to better understand particle acceleration.

Contribution

It provides new VHE observational data on binary systems and discusses their gamma-ray variability in relation to other wavelength observations, advancing understanding of particle acceleration mechanisms.

Findings

Detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from binary systems

Correlation between gamma-ray variability and orbital periods

Comparison with X-ray and Fermi LAT observations

Abstract

A few Galactic objects are known to be variable sources of photons with energies above 100 GeV. These systems are mostly binaries, where variability can often be connected to the orbital period. Particle acceleration and gamma-ray production processes in binaries are generally not well understood. We present here an overview of VERITAS observations of binary systems at very-high energies (VHE) with emphasis on LS I +61 303 and 1A0535+262. The results are discussed in the context of recent observations of RXTE, Swift and Fermi LAT at X- and Gamma-ray energies.