DISCOVERY OF HIGH-ENERGY GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM THE BINARY SYSTEM PSR B1259–63/LS 2883 AROUND PERIASTRON WITH <i>FERMI</i>

Abstract

Here, we report on the discovery of ≥ 100 MeV rays from the binary system PSR B12596–3/LS 2883 using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board Fermi. The system comprises a radio pulsar in orbit around a Be star. We report on LAT observations from near apastron to ~60 days after the time of periastron, t&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt;, on 2010 December 15. No γ-ray emission was detected from this source when it was far from periastron.