Abstract
Super-massive black holes in active galaxies can accelerate particles to relativistic energies1, producing jets with associated γ-ray emission. Galactic ‘microquasars’, which are binary systems consisting of a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole accreting gas from a companion star, also produce relativistic jets, generally together with radio flares2. Apart from an isolated event detected3 in Cygnus X-1, there has hitherto been no systematic evidence for the acceleration of particles to gigaelectronvolt or higher energies in a microquasar, with the consequence that we are as yet unsure about the mechanism of jet energization. Here we report four γ-ray flares with energies above 100 MeV from the microquasar Cygnus X-3 (an exceptional X-ray binary4,5,6 that sporadically produces radio jets7,8,9). There is a clear pattern of temporal correlations between the γ-ray flares and transitional spectral states of the radio-frequency and X-ray emission. Particle acceleration occurred a few days before radio-jet ejections for two of the four flares, meaning that the process of jet formation implies the production of very energetic particles. In Cygnus X-3, particle energies during the flares can be thousands of times higher than during quiescent states.
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Acknowledgements
The AGILE mission is funded by the Italian Space Agency with scientific and programmatic participation by the Italian Institute of Astrophysics and the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Author Contributions M. Tavani, A.B., G. Piano, S.S., E. Striani, G. Pucella and A.G. carried out the γ-ray analysis; G. Pooley, S.T. and N.A.N. obtained and analysed the radio data; and M. McCollough., K.I.I.K., Y.E., E.C. and M.F. analysed and discussed the X-ray data. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Tavani, M., Bulgarelli, A., Piano, G. et al. Extreme particle acceleration in the microquasar Cygnus X-3. Nature 462, 620–623 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08578
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08578
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