Gamma-ray line emission from SS433

Abstract

Preliminary evidence for gamma ray line emission from the region of SS433 using the spectrometer aboard the HEAO 3 satellite is reported. One of the line features, located at an energy of 1.5 MeV, has a statistical significance of about six sigmas during a particular 18-day interval. Another feature appears near 1.2 MeV. Both features exhibit fractional linewidths of about one percent. The intensity of the 1.5 MeV feature is variable by a factor of about three on a time scale of days, and the 1.2 MeV feature is similarly variable. The combined power of the lines is about 2 x 10 to the 27th ergs/s, assuming isotropic emission. The observed energies can be interpreted in terms of a kinematic model published elsewhere as blue and red-shifted components of the 1.369 MeV line from a nuclear transition of Mg-24 from its first excited state to its ground state.