Eta Carinae with Fermi-LAT: Two full orbits and the third periastron

TL;DR

This study analyzes nearly 12 years of Fermi-LAT data on Eta Carinae, revealing orbital variability in gamma-ray emission and providing insights into particle acceleration and wind collision dynamics in colliding-wind binaries.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed long-term gamma-ray analysis of Eta Carinae over multiple orbits, highlighting variability and perturbations in the wind collision region.

Findings

Gamma-ray emission peaks months before 2014 periastron.

2020 periastron shows the brightest gamma-ray emission to date.

Upper limits set for other colliding-wind binaries.

Abstract

Context. Colliding-wind binaries are massive stellar systems featuring strong, interacting winds. These binaries may be actual particle accelerators, making them variable gamma-ray sources due to changes in the wind collision region along the orbit. However, only two of these massive stellar binary systems have been identified as high-energy sources. The first and archetypical system of this class is Eta Carinae, a bright gamma-ray source with orbital variability peaking around its periastron passage. Aims. The origin of the high energy emission in Eta Carinae is still unclear, with both lepto-hadronic and hadronic scenarios being under discussion. Moreover, the gamma-ray emission seemed to differ between the two periastrons previously observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Continuing observations might provide highly valuable information for the understanding of the emission mechanisms in this system. Methods. We have used almost 12 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We studied both low and high energy components, searching for differences and similarities between both orbits, and made use of this large dataset to search for emission from nearby colliding-wind binaries. Results. We show how the energy component above 10 GeV of Eta Carinae peaks months before the 2014 periastron, while the 2020 periastron is the brightest to date. Additionally, upper limits are provided for the high-energy emission in other particle-accelerating colliding-wind systems. Conclusions. Current gamma-ray observations of Eta Carinae strongly suggest that the wind collision region of this system is perturbed from orbit to orbit affecting particle transport within the shock.