Gamma-ray binaries

Recent observations have shown that some compact stellar binaries radiate the highest energy light in the universe. The challenge has been to determine the nature of the compact object and whether the very high energy gamma-rays are ultimately powered by pulsar winds or relativistic jets. Multiwavelength observations have shown that one of the three gamma-ray binaries known so far, PSR B1259-63, is a neutron star binary and that the very energetic gamma-rays from this source and from another gamma-ray binary, LS I +61 303, may be produced by the interaction of pulsar winds with the wind from the companion star. At this time it is an open question whether the third gamma-ray binary, LS 5039, is also powered by a pulsar wind or a microquasar jet, where relativistic particles in collimated jets would boost the energy of the wind from the stellar companion to TeV energies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Invited talk to appear in Proceedings of the conference "The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources", Barcelona, 4-7 July 200

Precessing microblazars and unidentified gamma-ray sources

The recent discovery by Paredes et al. (2000) of a persistent microquasar that is positionally coincident with an unidentified gamma-ray source has open the possibility that other sources in the Third EGRET Catalog could be interpreted as microquasars as well. In this letter we show that some variable unidentified EGRET sources in the galactic plane could be produced by faint, otherwise undetected microquasars with precessing jets. When the jet points towards the observer, gamma-ray emission resulting from upscattered stellar photons could be detectable yielding a variable source with weak or undetectable counterpart at longer wavelengths. Strategies for detecting these``microblazars'' with forthcoming satellites are briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters in press, typing errors correctio

Recurrent microblazar activity in Cygnus X-1?

Recurrent flaring events at X- and soft gamma-ray energies have been recently reported for the galactic black hole candidate Cygnus X-1. The observed fluxes during these transient outbursts are far higher than what is observed in ``normal'' episodes. Here we suggest that the origin of this radiation is non-thermal and produced by inverse Compton interactions between relativistic electrons in the jet and external photon fields, with a dominant contribution from the companion star field. The recurrent and relatively rapid variability could be explained by the precession of the jet, which results in a variable Doppler amplification.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letter

Kinematics of Black Hole X-ray Binary GRS 1915+105

The space velocity of a stellar black hole encodes the history of its formation and evolution. Here we measure the 3-dimensional motion of the microquasar GRS 1915+105, using a decade of astrometry with the NRAO Very Long Baseline Array, together with the published radial velocity. The velocity in the Galactic Plane deviates from circular rotation by 53-80 +_ 8 km/s, where the range covers any specific distance from 6-12 kpc. Perpendicular to the plane, the velocity is only 10 +_ 4 km/s. The peculiar velocity is minimized at a distance 9-10 kpc, and is then nearly in the radial direction towards the Galactic Center. We discuss mechanisms for the origin of the peculiar velocity, and conclude that it is most likely a consequence of Galactic velocity diffusion on this old binary, rather than the result of a supernova kick during the formation of the 14 Mo black hole. Finally, a brief comparison is made with 4 other BH binaries whose kinematics are well determined.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. ApJ accepte

An attempt to identify the extended synchrotron structure associated with the micro-quasar GRS 1915+105

The energy ejected from the galaxy micro-quasar GRS1915+105 in the form of jets is expected to lead to formation of an extended double lobe/hot-spot structure with the energy content comparable to an average supernova remnant. We used the Effelsberg 100m telescope at 10.45 GHz in attempt to identify such structures. For this distant galactic plane source any definite identification was not possible due to high confusion by numerous background sources, however, a few suspect structures were pointed out.Comment: LaTeX uses a new 2001 A&A macro, 4 pages, 2 figures, A&A accepte

Funding Universal Service Obligations with an Essential Facility: Charges vs. Taxes and Subsidies

This paper compares three schemes for funding Universal Service Obligations in network industries with an essential facility: an uplift to the network access charge, the establishment of a Universal Service (US) fund financed through a lump-sum tax and a US fund financed through a unit tax. The comparison is made under a duopoly structure with a potential entrant and an incumbent, which owns the essential facility and is responsible for universal service. The incumbent is also constrained to offer the same price on all markets. Using a social welfare criteria, we show that the US fund financed with a lump sum tax dominates the other two schemes, while the US fund with unit tax is equivalent to the access charge uplift.UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATIONS; ACCESS CHARGES; REGULATION