Unifying disc-jet behaviour in X-ray binaries: an optical/IR approach

Russell, D. M.; Maitra, D.; Fender, R. P.; Lewis, F.
Bibliographical reference

"Proceedings of the VII Microquasar Workshop: Microquasars and Beyond. September 1 - 5, 2008. Foca, Izmir, Turkey. Published online at http://pos.sissa.it/cgi-bin/reader/conf.cgi?confid=62, p.2"

Advertised on:
0
2008
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
5
Refereed citations
4
Description
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.