Speakers
Description
The search of gamma-ray emission from accreting pulsars in X-ray binaries (XRBs) has been ongoing for some time. Recent marginal detections in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) have sparked renewed interest in this area. Anticipating future advances in gamma-ray telescopes like the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), we investigate the expected emission above 10 GeV from XRBs using an enhanced Cheng & Ruderman model. This model incorporates Monte Carlo simulations to account for cascade development inside and outside the accretion disc, including pair and photon production processes that involve interaction with nuclei, X-ray photons from the accretion disc, and the magnetic field. Our results yield a wide range of gamma-ray luminosities (up to ~1E35 erg/s) and spectra, with some exhibiting emission below ~100 GeV and others extending to 10-100 TeV. We compare our findings with existing Fermi/LAT and VERITAS data for two HMXBs, and look forward to more comprehensive comparisons with forthcoming, more sensitive instruments.
