Spun-Up Rotation-Powered Magnetized White Dwarfs in Close Binaries as Possible Gamma-ray Sources: Signatures of Pulsed Modulation from AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii in Fermi-LAT Data

In this paper, the possibility of periodic pulsar-like gamma-ray emission from the white dwarfs in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii is investigated. We show that the white dwarf magnetospheres in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii can possibly induce potentials to accelerate charged particles to energies in excess...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Galaxies 2023-01, Vol.11 (1), p.14
Main Authors: Meintjes, Pieter J., Madzime, Spencer T., Kaplan, Quinton, van Heerden, Hendrik J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AE Aquarii
Astronomical research
Astrophysics
Charged particles
Emissions
Energy
Gamma emission
Gamma ray astronomy
Gamma ray sources
Gamma rays
gamma-ray emission
Leptons
magnetic field
Magnetic fields
Magnetosphere
Magnetospheres
Neutron stars
Neutrons
Pair production
particle acceleration
Pions
Power
pulsar
Pulsars
Radiation
Radio emission
Relativistic effects
Signatures
Spectrum analysis
Telescopes
white dwarf
White dwarf stars
White dwarfs
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Summary:In this paper, the possibility of periodic pulsar-like gamma-ray emission from the white dwarfs in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii is investigated. We show that the white dwarf magnetospheres in AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii can possibly induce potentials to accelerate charged particles to energies in excess of one tera electronvolt (TeV) with associated gamma-ray emission through processes such as curvature radiation, inverse Compton, and hadronic processes such as neutral pion decay. We report here pulsed gamma-ray signatures at or close to the spin period of white dwarfs in both AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii in the Fermi-LAT dataset. This may indicate that both these white dwarfs possibly contain a particle accelerator that can produce relativistic electrons and ions and associated high energy radiation. The possibility of pair production is also investigated, which could provide a source for relativistic e± pairs in the magnetosphere. This could possibly be a driver for other forms of lepton-induced multi-wavelength pulsar-like emission from these two systems as well, for example, to explain the recently detected pulsed radio emission from AE Aquarii and R Scorpii in MeerKAT observations at the spin period of the white dwarf. The possibility of future detection of AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is also discussed. The future Vera Rubin Observatory will make a revolutionary contribution to time-domain astrophysics, which may lead to the discovery of thousands of new transient sources, possibly also many more close binaries with highly spun-up magnetized white dwarfs such as AE Aquarii and AR Scorpii for future investigation.
ISSN:2075-4434
2075-4434
DOI:10.3390/galaxies11010014