Inverse Compton Scattering Model for X-ray Emission of the Gamma-ray Binary LS 5039

TL;DR

This paper presents an inverse Compton scattering model for LS 5039's X-ray emission, suggesting low-energy electrons in the Thomson regime can explain observations better than synchrotron models, with electron injection properties varying with orbital phase.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel IC emission model for LS 5039 that accounts for X-ray flux without requiring strong magnetic fields, differing from prior synchrotron-based models.

Findings

IC emission from low-energy electrons explains Suzaku X-ray observations.

X-ray light curve matches observations if electron injection varies with Fermi flux.

Model aligns with orbital phase-dependent electron injection properties.

Abstract

We propose a model for the gamma-ray binary LS 5039 in which the X-ray emission is due to the inverse Compton (IC) process instead of the synchrotron radiation. Although the synchrotron model has been discussed in previous studies, it requires a strong magnetic field which leads to a severe suppression of the TeV gamma-ray flux in conflict with H.E.S.S. observations. In this paper, we calculate the IC emission by low energy electrons (\gamma_e \lesssim 10^3) in the Thomson regime. We find that IC emission of the low energy electrons can explain the X-ray flux and spectrum observed with Suzaku if the minimum Lorentz factor of injected electrons \gamma_min is around 10^3. In addition, we show that the Suzaku light curve is well reproduced if \gamma_min varies in proportion to the Fermi flux when the distribution function of injected electrons at higher energies is fixed. We conclude that the emission from LS 5039 is well explained by the model with the IC emission from electrons whose injection properties are dependent on the orbital phase. Since the X-ray flux is primarily determined by the total number of cooling electrons, this conclusion is rather robust, although some mismatches between the model and observations at the GeV band remain in the present formulation.