  High-mass microquasars (HMMQs) are systems from which relativistic jets are
launched. At the scales of several times the binary system size, the jets are
expected to follow a helical path caused by the interaction with a strong
stellar wind and orbital motion. Such a trajectory has its influence on the
non-thermal emission of the jets, which also depends strongly on the observing
angle due to Doppler boosting effects. We explore how the expected non-thermal
emission of HMMQ jets at small scales is affected by the impact of the stellar
wind and the orbital motion on the jet propagation. We studied the broadband
non-thermal emission, from radio to gamma rays, produced in HMMQ jets up to a
distance of several orbital separations, taking into account a realistic jet
trajectory, different model parameters, and orbital modulation. The jet
trajectory is computed by considering momentum transfer with the stellar wind.
Electrons are injected at the position where a recollimation shock in the jets
is expected due to the wind impact. Their distribution along the jet path is
obtained assuming local acceleration at the recollimation shock, and cooling
via adiabatic, synchrotron, and inverse Compton processes. The synchrotron and
inverse Compton emission is calculated taking into account synchrotron
self-absorption within the jet, free-free absorption with the stellar wind, and
absorption by stellar photons via pair production. Asymmetric light curves are
obtained owing to the helical trajectory of the jets. The presence of helical
shaped jets could be inferred from asymmetries in the light curves, which
become noticeable only for large jet Lorentz factors and low magnetic fields.
Model parameters could be constrained if accurate phase-resolved light curves
from GeV to TeV energies were available.
