γ-rays from binary system with energetic pulsar and Be star with aspherical wind: PSR B1259−63/SS2883

At least one massive binary system containing an energetic pulsar, PSR B1259−63/SS2883, has been recently detected in the TeV γ -rays by the HESS telescopes. These γ -rays are likely produced by particles accelerated in the vicinity of the pulsar and/or at the pulsar wind shock, in comptonization of soft radiation from the massive star. However, the process of γ -ray production in such systems can be quite complicated due to the anisotropy of the radiation field, complex structure of the pulsar wind termination shock and possible absorption of produced γ -rays which might initiate leptonic cascades. In this paper, we consider in detail all these effects. We calculate the γ -ray light curves and spectra for different geometries of the binary system PSR B1259−63/SS2883 and compare them with the TeV γ -ray observations. We conclude that the leptonic inverse-Compton model, which takes into account the complex structure of the pulsar wind shock due to the aspherical wind of the massive star, can explain the details of the observed γ -ray light curve.

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