Jets from X-ray binaries

Mickael Coriat IRAP - Toulouse

1

Outline

X-ray binaries: overview

The empirical picture

Luminosity correlations

Radio flares and major ejection events

Accretion disc winds

Jet power

Jet power and spin

Jet power and particle content

3

Companion starAccretion disc

CoronaJets

(Radio, IR)

(IR, Opt., Soft X-ray)

(Hard X-ray)

(IR, Opt.)

Multi-wavelength emitters

Highly variable (ms to years = “Human” timescales)

Transient: outburst (~1 year) / quiescence (~10 years)

Several accretion states

Intermittent jets

50000 51000 52000 53000 54000 55000

Date (MJD)

0

20

40

60

2007

20102004/05

2002/03

1998/99

Tau

x d

e c

om

pta

ge A

SM

( c

ou

ps

s-1)

2006 2008 2009

(a)

X-ray

X-ray binaries: overview

From ~1032 ergs/s (quiescence) up to ~ 1037 ergs/s

Corona dominates X-ray emission

Strong X-ray variability (frequency range 0.01-100 Hz)

Compact jets

The empirical pictureThe hard state

Few m.a.s. = few 10 A.U.

Steady emission

Flat spectrum from radio to IR

Self-absorbed synchrotron emission

Internal shocks (see Julien’s talk)

Compact jets

Densité de flux

Fréquence!b

JET COMPACT

Radio Infrarouge

�∼0

radio

Stirling et al 2001

JET

Universality of accretion-jet coupling

Self-absorbed synchrotron emitting jets + Radiatively inefficient accretion flow

LR / L0.6X M0.8

Stellar mass and supermassive BH

Fender et al. (2010) Koerding et al (2006)

Radio

X-ray

JET

Radio

Stellar mass BH

X-ray

Accretion Accretion

Luminosity correlations

Dichotomy

“Standard” correlation

X-ray

Radio

“Standard” black holes Outliers

Same correlation index but lower normalisation?

Behaviour at low luminosity?(Corbel et al. 2003 Gallo et al. 2003)

Adapted from Fender et al. 2010

Outliers

Radio-quiet stellar-mass black holes?

LR / L⇠0.6X

Stellar-mass BH

Transition between

1x1032 1x1033 1x1034 1x1035 1x1036 1x1037 1x1038

1x1018

1x1019

1x1020

1x1021

GX 339-4V404 CygH1743-322Swift J1753.5-0127

X-ray luminosity 3-9 keV (erg s-1)

Radi

o lu

min

osity

( e

rg s

-1 H

z-1)

Lstand Ltrans

Radio

X-ray

“Standard correlation”

Transition

LR∝LX0.6

LR∝L

X1.4

JET

AccretionCoriat et al (2011)

Different correlation index Transition between the 2 tracks Two populations statistically distinct Standard model seriously questioned…

Gallo et al (2012)

Two modes of disc-jet coupling?

Luminosity correlations

Corbel et al. 2013X-ray Luminosity (LEdd)

Rad

io L

umin

osity

Inefficient branch

Effic

ient

bra

nch

Transition

Mtrans

10-3 10-110-5

quiescence

10-7

LR/ L

0.6X

LX / M2⇠3 LX / M

L R/L

1.4

X

jet

jet

ADAF, CDAF, ADIOS

ADC

jet

LHAF hot-JED

X-ray jet model

Synchrotron

SSCExternal Comp.

Coriat et al. 2011

Possible interpretation: Radiatively efficient jet-emitting accretion flow

Transition efficient —> inefficient accretion flow below a critical accretion rate.

Re-condensation of optically thin gas within the inner regions enhances seed photons for Comptonization (Meyer-Hofmeister & Meyer, 2014)

“Usually” above 1037 erg/s

Corona emission drops

Dramatic change in spectral shape

Marginal change in broadband luminosity

Broadband noise drops. Strong QPOs appear.

Radio flares (single or sequence)

The empirical pictureFrom hard to soft

Courtesy G. Pooley

Radio flares and major ejection events

Mirabel & Rodriguez 94

Corbel et al. 2002Spatially resolved as radio knots moving at relativistic speed

Substantial mass ejection and/or internal shock propagation ?

Coronal plasma ejected ?

Spectrum evolution follows the ‘standard’ expanding synchrotron bubble model (e.g. van der Laan 1966)

Jets/ISM interaction sometimes observed in X-rays

Radio X-raysRadio (ATCA)

Optical

(Chandra)X-ray

(VLT)

Disk blackbody dominates X-ray (peak at ~1 keV)

Very low X-ray variability (< 5% r.m.s.)

No jets emission detected

Strong accretion disc winds detected as blueshifted absorption lines in X-ray

The empirical pictureThe soft state

Neilsen & Lee 2012

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Accretion disc winds

Ponti et al. 2012

Winds only visible in soft state of high inclination sources —> Equatorial winds

Mass ejected ≳ Mass accreted

Vwind ~ 1000 km/s

Jets/winds dichotomy ?

14

Magnetically driven winds

Soft state Hard state

Chakravorty et al. 2016

MHD wind model can reproduce most of the observations

Wind could be present in hard state as well but non detected (thermal instabilities)

15

Jet power and BH spin

Accretion-powered jets Spin-powered jetsBlandford & Payne (1982) Blandford & Znajek (1977)

PJ / a2 ?

Jet power and BH spinTransient jetsCompact jets

Fender et al. (2010) Narayan & McClintock (2012)

No evidence for spin powering of compact jets

Potential contribution to transient jets power (but controversial, e.g. Russell et al. 2013)

But methods for estimating spin and jets power are uncertain…

Jet particle content

Electron:positron, electron:proton ?

Important consequences for jet power and formation mechanism

No clear evidence yet for the presence of baryons in jets except in SS433

Dubner et al. 1998

Baryons in jets from 4U 1630-47 ?

Detection of blueshifted iron lines in X-ray coincident with re-appearance of jets in radio

Diaz-Trigo et al. 2013

But no detections during the rest of the outburst…

Baryons could be launched during specific phases only

Nielsen et al. 2014