Radio monitoring of the hard state jets in the 2011 outburst of MAXI J1836−194

2015/03/30 by T. D. Russell, J. C. A. Miller‐Jones, J. C. A. Miller-Jones +35 · 65 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxy #Jansky #Jet (fluid) #Physics #Position angle #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Radio galaxy #Radio telescope #Telescope #Very Long Baseline Array #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stv723

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 450(2), 1745-1759 (Oxford University Press) · 18 pages, 4 tables, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

arxiv created 2015/03/30 · openalex publication_date 2015/04/28 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

MAXI J1836−194 is a Galactic black hole candidate X-ray binary that was discovered in 2011 when it went into outburst. In this paper, we present the full radio monitoring of this system during its ‘failed’ outburst, in which the source did not complete a full set of state changes, only transitioning as far as the hard intermediate state. Observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) show that the jet properties changed significantly during the outburst. The VLA observations detected linearly polarized emission at a level of ∼1 per cent early in the outburst, increasing to ∼3 per cent as the outburst peaked. High-resolution images with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) show an ∼15 mas jet along the position angle −21 ± 2°, in agreement with the electric vector position angle found from our polarization results (−21 ± 4°), implying that the magnetic field is perpendicular to the jet. Astrometric observations suggest that the system required an asymmetric natal kick to explain its observed space velocity. Comparing quasi-simultaneous X-ray monitoring with the 5 GHz VLA observations from the 2011 outburst shows an unusually steep hard-state radio/X-ray correlation of |L_{\rm R} ∝ L_{\rm X}^{1.8± 0.2}|⁠, where LR and LX denote the radio and X-ray luminosities, respectively. With ATCA and Swift monitoring of the source during a period of re-brightening in 2012, we show that the system lay on the same steep correlation. Due to the low inclination of this system, we then investigate the possibility that the observed correlation may have been steepened by variable Doppler boosting.

Citations

• Magnetic acceleration of relativistic active galactic nucleus jets
• VLBI observations of the shortest orbital period black hole binary, MAXI J1659−152
• “Soft X-ray transient” outbursts which are not soft
• TESTING THE JET QUENCHING PARADIGM WITH AN ULTRADEEP OBSERVATION OF A STEADILY SOFT STATE BLACK HOLE
• Calibration of the Rossi X‐Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array
• X‐Ray Time Variability Across the Atoll Source States of 4U 1636−53
• On the Origin of Radio Emission in the X‐Ray States of XTE J1650−500 during the 2001–2002 Outburst
• Methods and results of an automatic analysis of a complete sample ofSwift-XRT observations of GRBs
• Radio/X-ray correlation in the low/hard state of GX 339–4
• Formation of a Black Hole in the Dark

Cited by

• X-ray and radio polarimetry of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1728-34
• The INTEGRAL view on black hole X-ray binaries