On the nature of the "radio quiet" black hole binaries

TL;DR

This paper investigates why some black hole binaries are radio quiet, exploring factors influencing jet power, and compares their properties with neutron stars, suggesting possible similarities in accretion/ejection processes.

Contribution

It analyzes the role of binary parameters and outburst properties on jet power, introduces a jet model with variable Lorentz factors, and compares radio quiet black holes with neutron stars.

Findings

No dependence of jet power on binary parameters or outburst properties.

The jet model with variable Lorentz factors can reproduce the scatter in correlations.

Radio quiet black holes may be statistically similar to neutron stars in the X-ray/radio plane.

Abstract

The accretion/ejection coupling in accreting black hole binaries has been described by empirical relations between the X-ray/radio and X-ray/optical-infrared luminosities. These correlations were initially thought to be universal. However, recently many sources have been found to produce jets that, given certain accretion-powered luminosities, are fainter than expected from the earlier correlations. This shows that black holes with similar accretion flows can produce a broad range of outflows in power, suggesting that some other parameters might be tuning the accretion/ejection coupling. Recent work has already shown that this jet power does not correlate with the reported black hole spin measurements. Here we discuss whether fixed parameters of the binary system, as well as the properties of the outburst, produce any effect on the energy output in the jet. No obvious dependence is found. We also show that there is no systematic variation of the slope of the radio:X-ray correlation with normalization. We define a jet-toy model in which the bulk Lorentz factor becomes larger than ~1 above ~0.1% of the Eddington luminosity. With this model, if we assume random inclination angles which result in highly variable boosting at large Eddington ratios, we are able to reproduce qualitatively the scatter of the X-ray/radio correlation and the radio quiet population. However the model seems to be at odds with some other observed properties of the systems. We also compare the radio quiet black holes with the neutron stars. We show that if a mass correction from the fundamental plane is applied, the possibility that they are statistically indistinguishable in the X-ray:radio plane can not be completely ruled out. This result suggests that some of the outliers could actually be neutron stars, or that the disc-jet coupling in the radio quiet black holes is more similar to the one in neutron stars.