Studying microquasars at high-energies

Abstract

The study of galactic gamma-ray sources has experienced an outstanding advance during the last years thanks to the results obtained by the atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and satellites such as Fermi. Between those sources, the binary systems that have been detected at energies greater than ~100 GeV, host powerful particle accelerators embedded into environments where multiple non-thermal emitting processes take place and where the propagation of high-energy photons trigger the development of electromagnetic cascades. The hydrodynamical description of the plasmas and flows within these systems also involves a complex, fascinating behavior which we have yet to fully understand. Moreover, the varying, but regularly repeating conditions make of them an excellent constraining laboratory for theoretical models concerning all these issues. The microquasars, X-ray binaries with radio jets, manifest all along the electromagnetic spectrum as the last result of the combined matter accretion and ejection by a compact object. Here I present a brief update on our knowledge about them, with focus on their high-energy emission.