Resolved Jets and Long-Period Black Hole X-ray Novae
Abstract
In this brief note we point out that the four spatially resolved relativistic jets among the 14 dynamically confirmed black hole X-ray novae are all in systems with long orbital periods. Many shorter period systems show transient radio outbursts which are attributed to jets, but these jets have not been spatially resolved. Super-Eddington accretion has been suggested as a requirement for jet formation and may be consistent with our compilation of luminosities, but some super-Eddington outbursts did not form spatially resolved jets. We speculate that some as yet unknown process (or combination of processes) favors formation of substantially larger jets in long period systems. Two short period systems show evidence for extent, but have not been resolved into multiple components as the long period systems have.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0302230,
title = {Resolved Jets and Long-Period Black Hole X-ray Novae},
author = {M. R. Garcia and J. M. Miller and J. E. McClintock and A. R. King and J. Orosz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0302230},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
19 pages, accepted to ApJ 07 March, spectral types added to table