Gamma rays from accreting matter onto collapsed objects

An analytical model for the accretion of matter onto a collapsed, massive object is employed to calculate the resulting gamma ray emissions and their origins. The accreting gas is assumed to be a fully ionized plasma featuring Maxwellian electron and proton momentum distributions, an isotropic angular distribution of electrons and protons and proton-proton interactions that produce pions. Calculations are made of the pion momentum production spectra as a function of the proton temperature and the gamma ray energy production spectra as a secondary product of pion decay and from bremsstrahlung. The resulting gamma ray spectra, when fitted to Cos-B data on the stellar object 3C 273, indicates an accretion rate of 280 solar masses/yr. 14 references