Jet disc coupling in black hole binaries

TL;DR

This paper reviews the coupling between accretion disks and jets in black hole binaries, highlighting recent multi-wavelength observations that reveal dynamic interactions on various time scales and their implications for current models.

Contribution

It provides a synthesis of observational evidence for disc-jet coupling in black hole binaries, illustrating these phenomena with specific case studies and discussing their significance for theoretical models.

Findings

Disc-jet coupling observed on hour time scales in Cygnus X-1.

Complex X-ray and optical correlations in XTEJ1118+480.

Observations support models linking accretion states to jet activity.

Abstract

In the last decade multi-wavelength observations have demonstrated the importance of jets in the energy output of accreting black hole binaries. The observed correlations between the presence of a jet and the state of the accretion flow provide important information on the coupling between accretion and ejection processes. After a brief review of the properties of black hole binaries, I illustrate the connection between accretion and ejection through two particularly interesting examples. First, an INTEGRAL observation of Cygnus X-1 during a 'mini-' state transition reveals disc jet coupling on time scales of orders of hours. Second, the black hole XTEJ1118+480 shows complex correlations between the X-ray and optical emission. Those correlations are interpreted in terms of coupling between disc and jet on time scales of seconds or less. Those observations are discussed in the framework of current models.