En el sistema binario Cygnus X-3, en nuestra Galaxia, un agujero negro y una estrella gigante giran tan cerca que la estrella pierde materia, arrastrada por un potente viento. De las cercanías del agujero negro surgen chorros; recientemente, un telescopio captó de ellos fotones que llevan cada uno la energía de un mosquito en vuelo.
Así nacen: en el chorro se aceleran núcleos de helio, luego salen al exterior y chocan con la luz y las partículas del viento estelar. Las colisiones crean partículas que instantáneamente se transforman en fotones de energías récord.
tal como lo escribieron los autores, en inglés arXiv:2603.27805
We study the physical mechanisms underlying the production of orbitally-modulated PeV photons from Cyg X-3, recently discovered by the LHAASO collaboration. Our key findings are as follows. Helium nuclei are accelerated in a compact and strongly magnetized region within the jet, but they then quickly advect downstream to regions with a weaker field, allowing them to diffuse out of the jet, where they produce pions in hadronic collisions with both the stellar photons and the stellar wind of the Wolf-Rayet donor. The optical depths across the binary are $$\lesssim$$1 for both types of interactions, implying that their rates are proportional to the column densities along the particle paths. Given the low viewing angle of Cyg X-3 ($$i\approx26^\circ$$--$$28^\circ$$), most of the observed photons are produced by the relativistic hadrons accelerated in the counterjet (for which the column densities toward the observer are much longer than for the jet). This also explains the peak of the phase-folded PeV photon flux to be on the opposite side of the superior conjunction than that for the (also orbitally-modulated) GeV photons, which are produced by collisions of relativistic electrons with stellar photons in the optically thick regime. This then implies that the GeV emission is produced in the approaching jet.
Uno de estos fotones lleva una energía cien veces mayor que la de un mosquito en vuelo, y toda ella está comprimida en una partícula de luz.