Cosmic rays, γ -rays, and neutrinos from discrete black hole X-ray binary ejecta

Journal article

The origin of cosmic rays (CRs) from outside the Solar system is unknown, as they are deflected by the interstellar magnetic field. Supernova remnants are the main candidate for CRs up to PeV energies but due to lack of evidence, they cannot be concluded as the sources of the most energetic Galactic CRs. We investigate discrete ejecta produced in state transitions of black hole X-ray binary systems as a potential source of CRs, motivated by recent TeV -ray detections by LHAASO. Starting from MAXI J1820+070, we examine the multi-wavelength observations and find that efficient particle acceleration may take place (i.e. into a robust power law), up to eV, where is the ratio of particle energy to magnetic energy. From these calculations, we estimate the global contribution of ejecta to the entire Galactic spectrum to be , with the CR contribution rising to at PeV energies, assuming roughly equal energy in non-thermal protons, non-thermal electrons, and magnetic fields. In addition, we calculate associated -ray and neutrino spectra of the MAXI J1820+070 ejecta to investigate new detection methods with CTAO, which provide strong constraints on initial ejecta size of order Schwarzschild radii ( pc) assuming a period of adiabatic expansion.

Authors: Bacon, NJ; Cooper, AJ; Kantzas, D; Matthews, JH; Fender, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 546
• Issue: 2
• Pages: stag080
• Article number: stag080
• Publication date: 2026-01-14
• Acceptance date: 2026-01-12
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag080
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: neutrinos; gamma-rays: general; cosmic rays; astroparticle physics; methods: analytical; X-rays: binaries