Abstract
The jet/grain model proposed by Ramatyet al. (1984, hereafter abbreviated as RKL) for production of the narrow gamma-ray lines reported from SS433 is examined and shown to be untenable on numerous grounds. Most importantly:
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(a)
The huge Coulomb collisional losses (W c≳2×1041 erg s−1) from the jet, which would necessarily accompany non-thermal production of the gamma rays, demands a jet acceleration/collimation process acting over a very long range and with a power at least 102 times the Eddington limit for any stellar object.
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(b)
There is a collisional thick target limit (irrespective of jet mass) to the gamma ray yield per interstellar proton. Consequently, the gamma-ray data demand an improbably high interstellar density (≳109 cm−3).
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(c)
For the grains to be kept cool enough (≲3000 K) to survive the heating rateW c either by radiation or jet expansion would demand a ‘jet’ wider than its length and so inconsistent with narrow lines. In the case of radiative cooling, the resultant IR flux would exceed the observed values by a factor ≳104.
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(d)
Light scattered on the jet grain mass required would be highly polarized, contrary to observations, unless the jet was optically thick to grains, again precluding their radiative cooling.
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(e)
To avoid unacceptable precessional broadening of the gamma-ray lines demands an emitting jet length ≲0.5 days atv=0.26c. This increases the necessary mass loss rate by a factor ≅10 over the values obtained by RKL who assumed a 4-day ‘flare’.
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(f)
The model also predicts rest energy gamma-ray lines which are not observed.
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Brown, J.C., Carlaw, V.A., Cawthorne, T.V. et al. Problems with non-thermal models for the narrow line gamma rays reported from SS 433. Astrophys Space Sci 143, 153–161 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00636763
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00636763