Jet trails and Mach cones: The interaction of microquasars with the ISM

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations and analytical modeling to study how high-velocity microquasars interact with the interstellar medium, producing observable bow shocks, trails, and bubbles in different wavelengths.

Contribution

It provides new simulations and an analytical model of microquasar-ISM interactions, predicting observable signatures across multiple wavelengths.

Findings

Interaction produces bow shock, trail, and bubble structures.

Shock visible in Hα emission; bubble in radio; bow shock in X-ray.

Model matches observations of SAX J1712.6-3739.

Abstract

A sub-set of microquasars exhibit high peculiar velocity with respect to the local standard of rest due to the kicks they receive when being born in supernovae. The interaction between the radio plasma released by microquasar jets from such high-velocity binaries with the ISM must lead to the production of trails and bow shocks similar to what is observed in narrow-angle tailed radio galaxies and pulsar wind nebulae. We present a set of numerical simulations of this interaction that illuminate the long term dynamical evolution and the observational properties of these microquasar bow shock nebulae and trails. We find that this interaction always produces a structure that consists of a bow shock, a trailing neck, and an expanding bubble. Using our simulations to model emission, we predict that the shock surrounding the bubble and the neck should be visible in H{\alpha} emission, the interior of the bubble should be visible in synchrotron radio emission, and only the bow shock is likely to be detectable in X-ray emission. We construct an analytic model for the evolution of the neck and bubble shape and compare this model with observations of X-ray binary SAX J1712.6-3739.