Rapid compact jet quenching in the Galactic black hole candidate X-ray binary MAXI J1535-571
Journal article, 2020
We present results from six epochs of quasi-simultaneous radio, (sub-)millimetre, infrared, optical, and X-ray observations of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1535-571. These observations show that as the source transitioned through the hard-intermediate X-ray state towards the soft-intermediate X-ray state, the jet underwent dramatic and rapid changes. We observed the frequency of the jet spectral break, which corresponds to the most compact region in the jet where particle acceleration begins (higher frequencies indicate closer to the black hole), evolves from the infrared band into the radio band (decreasing by approximate to 3 orders of magnitude) in less than a day. During one observational epoch, we found evidence of the jet spectral break evolving in frequency through the radio band. Estimating the magnetic field and size of the particle acceleration region shows that the rapid fading of the high-energy jet emission was not consistent with radiative cooling; instead, the particle acceleration region seems to be moving away from the black hole on approximately dynamical time-scales. This result suggests that the compact jet quenching is not caused by local changes to the particle acceleration, rather we are observing the acceleration region of the jet travelling away from the black hole with the jet flow. Spectral analysis of the X-ray emission shows a gradual softening in the few days before the dramatic jet changes, followed by a more rapid softening similar to 1-2 d after the onset of the jet quenching.
X-rays: individual (MAXI J1535-571)
acceleration of particles
submillimetre: general
ISM: jets and outflows
accretion, accretion discs
X-rays: binaries
Author
T. D. Russell
University of Amsterdam
M. Lucchini
University of Amsterdam
A. J. Tetarenko
University of Alberta
East Asian Observatory
J. C. A. Miller-Jones
Curtin University
G. R. Sivakoff
University of Alberta
F. Krau
Pennsylvania State University
University of Amsterdam
W. Mulaudzi
University of Cape Town
M. C. Baglio
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
New York University Abu Dhabi
D. M. Russell
New York University Abu Dhabi
D. Altamirano
University of Southampton
Chiara Ceccobello
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
S. Corbel
Université Paris PSL
Paris Diderot University
N. Degenaar
University of Amsterdam
J. van den Eijnden
University of Amsterdam
R. Fender
University of Oxford
S. Heinz
University of Wisconsin Madison
K. I. I. Koljonen
Aalto University
University of Turku
D. Maitra
Wheaton College
S. Markoff
University of Amsterdam
S. Migliari
European Space Agency (ESA)
University of Barcelona
A. S. Parikh
University of Amsterdam
R. M. Plotkin
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
M. Rupen
National Research Council Canada
C. Sarazin
University of Virginia
R. Soria
The University of Sydney
Chinese Academy of Sciences
R. Wijnands
University of Amsterdam
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
0035-8711 (ISSN) 1365-2966 (eISSN)
Vol. 498 4 5772-5785Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
DOI
10.1093/mnras/staa2650