Correlating spectral and timing properties in the evolving jet of the microblazar MAXI J1836-194
Journal article, 2021

During outbursts, the observational properties of black hole X-ray binaries vary on time-scales of days to months. These relatively short time-scales make these systems ideal laboratories to probe the coupling between accreting material and outflowing jets as the accretion rate varies. In particular, the origin of the hard X-ray emission is poorly understood and highly debated. This spectral component, which has a power-law shape, is due to Comptonization of photons near the black hole, but it is unclear whether it originates in the accretion flow itself, or at the base of the jet, or possibly the interface region between them. In this paper, we explore the disc-jet connection by modelling the multiwavelength emission of MAXI J1836-194 during its 2011 outburst. We combine radio through X-ray spectra, X-ray timing information, and a robust joint-fitting method to better isolate the jet's physical properties. Our results demonstrate that the jet base can produce power-law hard X-ray emission in this system/outburst, provided that its base is fairly compact and that the temperatures of the emitting electrons are subrelativistic. Because of energetic considerations, our model favours mildly pair-loaded jets carrying at least 20 pairs per proton. Finally, we find that the properties of the X-ray power spectrum are correlated with the jet properties, suggesting that an underlying physical process regulates both.

accretion, accretion discs

X-rays: binaries

X-rays: individual (MAXI J836-194)

acceleration of particles

ISM: jets and outflows

Author

M. Lucchini

University of Amsterdam

Thomas D. Russell

University of Amsterdam

S. Markoff

University of Amsterdam

Federico M. Vincentelli

University of Southampton

D. W. Gardenier

University of Amsterdam

Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)

Chiara Ceccobello

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

P. Uttley

University of Amsterdam

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

0035-8711 (ISSN) 1365-2966 (eISSN)

Vol. 501 4 5910-5926

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.1093/mnras/staa3957

Related datasets

Reproduction package for the paper "Correlating spectral and timing properties in the evolving jet of themicro blazar MAXI J1836-194" [dataset]

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4384808

More information

Latest update

9/22/2023