Studying High-Mass Microquasars with HAWC

TL;DR

This study investigates four high-mass microquasars using HAWC data to detect potential TeV gamma-ray emissions and orbital flux variations, enhancing understanding of their high-energy emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It applies time-dependent analysis and periodogram techniques to HAWC data for four HMMQs to identify orbital modulation in TeV gamma-ray flux, a novel approach in this context.

Findings

No significant periodic gamma-ray signals detected.

Constraints placed on TeV emission levels from HMMQs.

Method demonstrates sensitivity to orbital flux variations.

Abstract

High-mass microquasars (HMMQs) are powerful particle accelerators, but their mechanism of the high-energy emission is poorly understood. To date, only a handful of these particle engines have ever been observed to emit gamma-ray photons and are thus potential TeV gamma-ray emitters. In this work, we study four HMMQs, namely, LS 5039, Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3, and SS 433 using the data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. We perform time dependent analyses on each HMMQ to look for any periodic variations in their flux. We produce light curves using the HAWC daily maps from which we generate Lomb-Scargle periodograms. By analysing the significance of the periodogram peaks, we assess whether or not HAWC is sensitive to orbitally modulating TeV gamma-ray flux in the four HMMQs.