A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Long-term study of the gamma-ray emission of Cygnus X-3 with MAGIC and Fermi–LAT; 
Authors: Abe, K.; Abe, S.; Abhir, J.; Abhishek, A.; Acciari, V.A.; Aguasca-Cabot, A.; Agudo, I.; Albanese, I.; Aniello, T.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L.A.; Arbet Engels, A.; Arcaro, C.; Arnesen, T.T.H.; Babić, A.; Bakshi, C.; Barres de Almeida, U.; Barrio, J.A.; Barrios-Jiménez, L.; Batković, I.; Baxter, J.; Becerra González, J.; Bednarek, W.; Bernardini, E.; Bernete, J.; Berti, A.; Besenrieder, J.; Bigongiari, C.; Biland, A.; Blanch, O.; Bonnoli, G.; Bordas, P.; Bošnjak, Ž.; Bronzini, E.; Burelli, I.; Campa, C.; Campoy-Ordaz, A.; Carosi, A.; Carosi, R.; Carretero-Castrillo, M.; Castro-Tirado, A.J.; Cerasole, D.; Ceribella, G.; Cerviño, A.; Chilingarian, A.; Chon, G.; Cifuentes Santos, A.; Contreras, J.L.; Cortina, J.; Covino, S.; D’Amico, G.; Da Vela, P.; Dazzi, F.; De Angelis, A.; De Lotto, B.; Delfino, M.; Delgado, J.; Di Pierro, F.; Di Tria, R.; Di Venere, L.; Dinesh, A.; Dominis Prester, D.; Donini, A.; Dorner, D.; Doro, M.; Eisenberger, L.; Elsaesser, D.; Foffano, L.; Font, L.; Frías García-Lago, F.; Fröse, S.; Fukazawa, Y.; García Soto, S.; Gaug, M.; Giesbrecht Paiva, J.G.; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Gliwny, P.; Godinović, N.; Gradetzke, T.; Grau, R.; Green, J.G.; Günther, P.; Hadasch, D.; Hahn, A.; Harutyunyan, G.; Hassan, T.; Herrera Llorente, J.; Hrupec, D.; Israyelyan, D.; Jahanvi, J.; Jiménez Martínez, I.; Jiménez Quiles, J.; Kankkunen, S.; Konrad, J.; Kouch, P.M.; Kubo, H.; Kushida, J.; Láinez, M.; Lamastra, A.; Lindfors, E.; Lombardi, S.; Longo, F.; López-Coto, R.; López-Moya, M.; López-Oramas, A.; Loporchio, S.; Lulić, L.; Lyard, E.; Majumdar, P.; Makariev, M.; Maneva, G.; Manganaro, M.; Mangano, S.; Mariotti, M.; Martínez, M.; Maruševec, P.; Mazin, D.; Menchiari, S.; Méndez Gallego, J.; Menon, S.; Miceli, D.; Miranda, J.M.; Mirzoyan, R.; Molero González, M.; Molina, E.; Mondal, H.A.; Moralejo, A.; Nanci, C.; Negro, A.; Neustroev, V.; Nievas Rosillo, M.; Nigro, C.; Nikolić, L.; Nozaki, S.; Okumura, A.; Otero-Santos, J.; Paiano, S.; Paneque, D.; Paoletti, R.; Paredes, J.M.; Peresano, M.; Persic, M.; Pihet, M.; Podobnik, F.; Prada Moroni, P.G.; Prandini, E.; Rhode, W.; Ribó, M.; Rico, J.; Roy, A.; Sahakyan, N.; Saturni, F.G.; Schiavone, F.; Schmitz, K.; Schweizer, T.; Sciaccaluga, A.; Silvestri, G.; Simongini, A.; Sitarek, J.; Sobczynska, D.; Stamerra, A.; Strišković, J.; Strom, D.; Strzys, M.; Suda, Y.; Takeishi, R.; Tartera Barberà, J.; Temnikov, P.; Terzić, T.; Teshima, M.; Tutone, A.; Ubach, S.; Vazquez Acosta, M.; Ventura, S.; Verna, G.; Viale, I.; Vigliano, A.; Vigorito, C.F.; Visentin, E.; Vitale, V.; Vorbrugg, M.; Vovk, I.; Walter, R.; Walther, C.; Wersig, F.; Yeung, P.K.H.; Bosch-Ramon, V.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Journal of High Energy Astrophysics
Article number: 100630
Volume: 53
ISSN: 2214-4048
eISSN: 2214-4056
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jheap.2026.100630
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jheap.2026.100630
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526481485
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY NC ND
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Cygnus X-3 is a microquasar composed of a compact object of unknown nature closely orbiting around a Wolf-Rayet star. The particularities of this source make it a unique case among microquasars. This fact, together with its recent establishment as a PeV particle accelerator, makes Cygnus X-3 a very interesting target for the investigation of the physical processes leading to gamma-ray production. In this work, the TeV and GeV gamma-ray emission of Cygnus X-3 is studied in order to determine its origin and constrain the properties of the system. For that purpose, a point-like analysis of 130 h of data taken with the MAGIC telescopes between 2013 and 2024 was performed, which represents the largest available sample for Cygnus X-3 at ∼ TeV energies. Additionally, contemporary data from Fermi –LAT were also analysed to better contextualize the MAGIC observations. For a more detailed investigation of the source physics, the data were divided into three subsets according to the flaring state of the source and orbital phase. No significant detection of Cygnus X-3 is found between 0.1 and 7 TeV for any of the datasets, and differential and integral flux upper limits are reported over the long-term monitoring of the source. The Fermi –LAT fluxes can be considered compatible with previous results, taking into account the different data samples used across studies. The MAGIC upper limits presented in this work represent the most constraining ones up to date at ∼ TeV energies. An eventual detection of Cygnus X-3 at these energies would significantly constrain the source properties, and is not unreasonable to expect given that the source has already been detected in both the GeV and PeV regimes during flaring states. Further observations of Cygnus X-3 at energies above tens of GeV would be valuable for this purpose.
Keywords:
astroparticle physics, Cygnus X-3, gamma rays, Microquasars
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Funding information in the publication:
We would like to thank the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias for the excellent working conditions at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma. The financial support of the German BMFTR, MPG and HGF; the Italian INFN and INAF; the Swiss National Fund SNF; the grants PID2022-136828NB-C41, PID2022-137810NB-C22, PID2022-138172NB-C41, PID2022-138172NB-C42, PID2022-138172NB-C43, PID2022-139117NB-C41, PID2022-139117NB-C42, PID2022-139117NB-C43, PID2022-139117NB-C44, CNS2023-144504 funded by the Spanish MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and ”ERDF A way of making Europe”; the Indian Department of Atomic Energy; the Japanese ICRR, the University of Tokyo, JSPS, and MEXT; the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, National RI Roadmap Project DO1-400/18.12.2020 and the Academy of Finland grant nr. 320045 is gratefully acknowledged. This work has also been supported by Centros de Excelencia “Severo Ochoa” y Unidades “María de Maeztu” program of the Spanish MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 (CEX2019-000918-M, CEX2021-001131-S, CEX2024001442-S), by AST22_00001_9 with funding from NextGenerationEU funds and by the CERCA institution and grants 2021SGR00426, 2021SGR00607 and 2021SGR00773 of the Generalitat de Catalunya; by the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) Project IP-2grantnumGS501100002809022-10-4595 and the University of Rijeka Project uniri-prirod-18-48; by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1491) and by the Lamarr-Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence; by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant No. 2025/WK/04; by the European Union (ERC, MicroStars, 101076533); and by the Brazilian MCTIC, the CNPq Productivity Grant 309053/2022-6 and FAPERJ Grants E-26/200.532/2023 and E-26/211.342/2021.
This research has made use of data from the OVRO 40-m monitoring program (Richards, J. L. et al. 2011, ApJS, 194, 29). This monitoring program has been supported by NSF grants AST-0808050 and AST-1109911, and is currently supported by NSF grant AST-2407603 and AST-2407604. It has also been supported by NASA grants NNX08AW31G, NNX11A043G, and NNX14AQ89G. This research has made use of the MAXI data provided by RIKEN, JAXA and the MAXI team, and the Swift/BAT transient monitor results provided by the Swift/BAT team. We acknowledge the Fermi–LAT collaboration for making available the data and the analysis tools used in this work.
We would also like to thank Dr. M. Martínez-Chicharro for her valuable contribution during the early stages of the MAGIC data analysis. VB-R is Correspondent Researcher of CONICET, Argentina, at the IAR.
