VERY HIGH ENERGY OBSERVATIONS OF THE BINARIES V 404 CYG AND 4U 0115+634 DURING GIANT X-RAY OUTBURSTS

Transient X-ray binaries produce major outbursts in which the X-ray flux can increase over the quiescent level by factors as large as 10(7). The low-mass X-ray binary V 404 Cyg and the high-mass system 4U 0115+634 underwent such major outbursts in 2015 June and October, respectively. We present here observations at energies above hundreds of GeV with the VERITAS observatory taken during some of the brightest X-ray activity ever observed from these systems. No gamma-ray emission has been detected by VERITAS in 2.5 hr of observations of the microquasar V 404 Cyg from 2015, June 20-21. The upper flux limits derived from these observations on the gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV of F < 4.4 x 10(-12) cm(-2) s(-1) correspond to a tiny fraction (about 10(-6)) of the Eddington luminosity of the system, in stark contrast to that seen in the X-ray band. No gamma-rays have been detected during observations of 4U 0115+634 in the period of major X-ray activity in 2015 October. The flux upper limit derived from our observations is F < 2.1 x 10(-12) cm(-2) s(-1) for gamma-rays above 300 GeV, setting an upper limit on the ratio of gamma-ray to X-ray luminosity of less than 4%.