A magnetic reconnection model for explaining the multi-wavelength emission of the microquasars Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3

TL;DR

This paper proposes a magnetic reconnection model for microquasars Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3, explaining their multi-wavelength emission by particle acceleration mechanisms that match observed spectral energy distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a magnetic reconnection-based acceleration model that outperforms shock acceleration in microquasars and predicts their spectral energy distributions including hadronic processes.

Findings

Reconnection acceleration can be more efficient than shock acceleration in microquasars.

The model's spectral energy distributions match observed data in various energy ranges.

Hadronic processes may account for very high energy gamma-ray emission.

Abstract

Recent studies have indicated that cosmic ray acceleration by a first-order Fermi process in magnetic reconnection current sheets can be efficient enough in the surrounds of compact sources. In this work, we discuss this acceleration mechanism operating in the core region of galactic black hole binaries (or microquasars) and show the conditions under which this can be more efficient than shock acceleration. In addition, we compare the corresponding acceleration rate with the relevant radiative loss rates obtaining the possible energy cut-off of the accelerated particles and also compute the expected spectral energy distribution (SED) for two sources of this class, namely Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-3, considering both leptonic and hadronic processes. The derived SEDs are comparable to the observed ones in the low and high energy ranges. Our results suggest that hadronic non-thermal emission due to photo-meson production may produce the very high energy gamma-rays in these microquasars.