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We acknowledge the support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF); the US Department of Energy Office of High-Energy Physics; the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program of Los Alamos National Laboratory; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT), Mexico, grants 271051, 232656, 260378, 179588, 254964, 258865, 243290, 132197, A1-S-46288, A1-S-22784, catedras 873, 1563, 341, 323, Red HAWC, Mexico; DGAPA-UNAM grants IG101320, IN111315, IN111716-3, IN111419, IA102019, IN112218; VIEP-BUAP; PIFI 2012, 2013, PROFOCIE 2014, 2015; the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; the Institute of Geophysics, Planetary Physics, and Signatures at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Polish Science Centre grant, DEC-2017/27/B/ST9/02272; Coordinacion de la Investigacion Cientifica de la Universidad Michoacana; Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship 180385; Generalitat Valenciana, grant CIDEGENT/2018/034; Chulalongkorn Universitys CUniverse (CUAASC) grant; Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular, Universitat de Valencia grant E-46980; and National Research Foundation of Korea grant 2018R1A6A1A06024977. Thanks to Scott Delay, Luciano Diaz, and Eduardo Murrieta for technical support.
HAWC Search for High-mass Microquasars
Publicated to:Astrophysical Journal Letters. 912 (1): L4- - 2021-05-01 912(1), DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/abf35a
Authors: Albert, A.; Alfaro, R.; Alvarez, C.; Angeles Camacho, J. R.; Arteaga-Velazquez, J. C.; Arunbabu, K. P.; Avila Rojas, D.; Ayala Solares, H. A.; Baghmanyan, V.; Belmont-Moreno, E.; BenZvi, S. Y.; Brisbois, C.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Capistran, T.; Carraminana, A.; Casanova, S.; Cotti, U.; Cotzomi, J.; de la Fuente, E.; de Leon, C.; Diaz Hernandez, R.; Diaz-Velez, J. C.; Dingus, B. L.; Durocher, M.; DuVernois, M. A.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Espinoza, C.; Fan, K. L.; Fang, K.; Fraija, N.; Galvan-Gamez, A.; Garcia-Gonzalez, J. A.; Garfias, F.; Gonzalez, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Harding, J. P.; Hernandez, S.; Hona, B.; Huang, D.; Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, F.; Huntemeyer, P.; Iriarte, A.; Jardin-Blicq, A.; Joshi, V.; Kieda, D.; Lara, A.; Lee, J.; Lee, W. H.; Leon Vargas, H.; Linnemann, J. T.; Longinotti, A. L.; Luis-Raya, G.; Lundeen, J.; Malone, K.; Martinez, O.; Martinez-Castro, J.; Matthews, J. A.; Miranda-Romagnoli, P.; Morales-Soto, J. A.; Moreno, E.; Mostafa, M.; Nayerhoda, A.; Nellen, L.; Newbold, M.; Nisa, M. U.; Noriega-Papaqui, R.; Olivera-Nieto, L.; Omodei, N.; Peisker, A.; Perez Araujo, Y.; Rho, C. D.; Roh, Y. J.; Rosa-Gonzalez, D.; Salesa Greus, F.; Sandoval, A.; Schneider, M.; Serna-Franco, J.; Smith, A. J.; Springer, R. W.; Tollefson, K.; Torres, I.; Torres-Escobedo, R.; Turner, R.; Urena-Mena, F.; Villasenor, L.; Watson, I. J.; Weisgarber, T.; Willox, E.; Zhou, H.;
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Abstract
Microquasars with high-mass companion stars are promising very high energy (VHE; 0.1-100 TeV) gamma-ray emitters, but their behaviors above 10 TeV are poorly known. Using the High Altitude Water Cerenkov (HAWC) observatory, we search for excess gamma-ray emission coincident with the positions of known high-mass microquasars (HMMQs). No significant emission is observed for LS 5039, Cyg X-1, Cyg X-3, and SS 433 with 1523 days of HAWC data. We set the most stringent limit above 10 TeV obtained to date on each individual source. Under the assumption that HMMQs produce gamma rays via a common mechanism, we have performed source-stacking searches, considering two different scenarios: (I) gamma-ray luminosity is a fraction epsilon ( gamma ) of the microquasar jet luminosity, and (II) VHE gamma rays are produced by relativistic electrons upscattering the radiation field of the companion star in a magnetic field B. We obtain epsilon ( gamma ) < 5.4 x 10(-6) for scenario I, which tightly constrains models that suggest observable high-energy neutrino emission by HMMQs. In the case of scenario II, the nondetection of VHE gamma rays yields a strong magnetic field, which challenges synchrotron radiation as the dominant mechanism of the microquasar emission between 10 keV and 10 MeV.
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The work has been published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 8/69, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Astronomy & Astrophysics.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.86, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-09, the following number of citations:
- Scopus: 6
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This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: China; Germany; Mexico; Poland; Republic of Korea; Thailand; United States of America.