Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray bubble around microquasar V4641 Sgr

R Alfaro¹, C Alvarez², J C Arteaga-Velázquez³, D Avila Rojas¹, H A Ayala Solares⁴, R Babu⁵, E Belmont-Moreno¹, K S Caballero-Mora², T Capistrán⁶, A Carramiñana⁷, S Casanova⁸, U Cotti³, J Cotzomi⁹, S Coutiño de León¹⁰, E De la Fuente¹¹, D Depaoli¹², N Di Lalla¹³, R Diaz Hernandez⁷, B L Dingus¹⁴, M A DuVernois¹⁰, M Durocher¹⁴, J C Díaz-Vélez¹⁰, K Engel¹⁵, C Espinoza¹, K L Fan¹⁵, K Fang¹⁶, N Fraija⁶, S Fraija⁶, J A García-González¹⁷, F Garfias⁶, A Gonzalez Muñoz¹, M M González⁶, J A Goodman¹⁵, S Groetsch⁵, J P Harding¹⁴, I Herzog¹⁸, J Hinton¹², D Huang¹⁹, F Hueyotl-Zahuantitla², P Hüntemeyer⁵, A Iriarte⁶, V Joshi²⁰, S Kaufmann²¹, D Kieda²², C de León³, J Lee²³, H León Vargas¹, J T Linnemann¹⁸, A L Longinotti⁶, G Luis-Raya²¹, K Malone²⁴, O Martinez⁹, J Martínez-Castro²⁵, J A Matthews²⁶, P Miranda-Romagnoli²⁷, J A Morales-Soto³, E Moreno⁹, M Mostafá²⁸, A Nayerhoda²⁹, L Nellen³⁰, M Newbold²², M U Nisa¹⁸, R Noriega-Papaqui²⁷, L Olivera-Nieto¹², N Omodei¹³, M Osorio⁶, Y Pérez Araujo¹, E G Pérez-Pérez²¹, C D Rho³¹, D Rosa-González⁷, E Ruiz-Velasco¹², H Salazar⁹, D Salazar-Gallegos¹⁸, A Sandoval¹, M Schneider¹⁵, J Serna-Franco¹, A J Smith¹⁵, Y Son²³, R W Springer²², O Tibolla²¹, K Tollefson¹⁸, I Torres⁷, R Torres-Escobedo³², R Turner⁵, F Ureña-Mena⁷, E Varela⁹, L Villaseñor⁹, X Wang³³, I J Watson²³, E Willox¹⁵, S Yun-Cárcamo¹⁵, H Zhou³²

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
² Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico.
³ Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA.
⁶ Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
⁷ Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Puebla, Mexico.
⁸ Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland. sabrina.casanova@ifj.edu.pl.
⁹ Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico.
¹² Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany.
¹³ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. kefang@physics.wisc.edu.
¹⁷ Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Monterrey, Mexico.
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. dezhih@umd.edu.
²⁰ Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
²¹ Universidad Politecnica de Pachuca, Pachuca, Mexico.
²² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
²³ University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
²⁴ Space Science and Applications Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
²⁵ Centro de Investigación en Computación, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico.
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
²⁷ Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Pachuca, Mexico.
²⁸ Department of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁹ Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland.
³⁰ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
³¹ Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea.
³² Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
³³ Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA. xwang32@mtu.edu.

PMID: 39415065
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07995-9

Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray bubble around microquasar V4641 Sgr

R Alfaro et al. Nature. 2024 Oct.

. 2024 Oct;634(8034):557-560.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07995-9. Epub 2024 Oct 16.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
² Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico.
³ Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA.
⁶ Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
⁷ Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Puebla, Mexico.
⁸ Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland. sabrina.casanova@ifj.edu.pl.
⁹ Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenierias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico.
¹² Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany.
¹³ Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Physics Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. kefang@physics.wisc.edu.
¹⁷ Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Monterrey, Mexico.
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. dezhih@umd.edu.
²⁰ Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
²¹ Universidad Politecnica de Pachuca, Pachuca, Mexico.
²² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
²³ University of Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
²⁴ Space Science and Applications Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
²⁵ Centro de Investigación en Computación, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico.
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
²⁷ Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Pachuca, Mexico.
²⁸ Department of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁹ Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland.
³⁰ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
³¹ Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea.
³² Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
³³ Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA. xwang32@mtu.edu.

PMID: 39415065
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07995-9

Abstract

Microquasars are laboratories for the study of jets of relativistic particles produced by accretion onto a spinning black hole. Microquasars are near enough to allow detailed imaging of spatial features across the multiwavelength spectrum. The recent extension measurement of the spatial morphology of a microquasar, SS 433, to TeV gamma rays¹ localizes the acceleration of electrons at shocks in the jet far from the black hole². V4641 Sagittarii (V4641 Sgr) is a similar binary system with a black hole and B-type main-sequence companion star and has an orbit period of 2.8 days (refs. ^3,4). It stands out for its super-Eddington accretion⁵ and for its radio jet, which is one of the fastest superluminal jets in the Milky Way. Previous observations of V4641 Sgr did not report gamma-ray emission⁶. Here we report TeV gamma-ray emission from V4641 Sgr that reveals particle acceleration at similar distances from the black hole as SS 433. Furthermore, the gamma-ray spectrum of V4641 Sgr is among the hardest TeV spectra observed from any known gamma-ray source and is detected above 200 TeV. Gamma rays are produced by particles, either electrons or protons, of higher energies. Because energetic electrons lose energy more quickly the higher their energy, such a spectrum either very strongly constrains the electron-production mechanism or points to the acceleration of high-energy protons. This suggests that large-scale jets from microquasars could be more common than previously expected and that they could be a notable source of galactic cosmic rays^7-9.

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References

1. Abeysekara, A. et al. Very-high-energy particle acceleration powered by the jets of the microquasar SS 433. Nature 562, 82–85 (2018). - PubMed - DOI
1. Abdalla, H. et al. Acceleration and transport of relativistic electrons in the jets of the microquasar SS 433. Science 383, 402–406 (2024). - DOI
1. MacDonald, R. K. D. et al. The black hole binary V4641 Sagitarii: activity in quiescence and improved mass determinations. Astrophys. J. 784, 2 (2014). - DOI
1. Gaia, C. et al. Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties. Astron. Astrophys. 616, A1 (2018). - DOI
1. in ’t Zand, J. et al. SAX J1819.3-2525. International Astronomical Union Circular, No. 7119, #1 (1999).

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Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray bubble around microquasar V4641 Sgr

Affiliations

Ultra-high-energy gamma-ray bubble around microquasar V4641 Sgr

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

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