Unifying disc-jet behaviour in X-ray binaries: an optical/IR approach
Abstract
Synchrotron emission from jets produced by X-ray binaries can be detected at optical and infrared (IR) frequencies. I show that optical/IR colour-magnitude diagrams of the outbursts of nine X-ray binaries successfully separate thermal disc emission from non-thermal jet emission, in both black hole and neutron star sources. A heated single-temperature blackbody is able to reproduce the observed relations between colour and magnitude, except when excursions are made to a redder colour than expected, which is due to jet emission. The general picture that is developed is then incorporated into the unified picture of disc-jet behaviour in black hole X-ray binaries. At a given position of a source in the X-ray hardness-intensity diagram, the radio, IR and optical properties can be inferred. Similarly, it is possible to predict the X-ray and radio luminosities and spectral states from optical/IR monitoring.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0811.2919,
title = {Unifying disc-jet behaviour in X-ray binaries: an optical/IR approach},
author = {David M. Russell and Dipankar Maitra and Rob P. Fender and Fraser Lewis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.2919},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, 5 figures, contributed talk at the VII Microquasar Workshop: Microquasars and Beyond, 1-5 September 2008, Foca, Izmir, Turkey; accepted for publication in Proceedings of Science