Quasi-Periodic Variations in X-ray Emission and Long-Term Radio Observations: Evidence for a Two-Component Jet in Sw J1644+57

TL;DR

This study presents evidence for a two-component jet in Sw J1644+57, explaining observed quasi-periodic X-ray oscillations and radio re-brightening through a model involving a narrow inner jet and a wider outer jet.

Contribution

The paper introduces a two-component jet model to interpret complex X-ray and radio variability in Sw J1644+57, linking quasi-periodic oscillations to separate jet components.

Findings

Inner jet has Lorentz factor ~5.5 and energy ~3.0×10^{52} erg.

Outer jet has Lorentz factor ~2.5 and energy ~3.0×10^{53} erg.

Two-component jet explains radio re-brightening and X-ray QPOs.

Abstract

The continued observations of Sw J1644+57 in X-ray and radio bands accumulated a rich data set to study the relativistic jet launched in this tidal disruption event. The X-ray light curve of Sw J1644+57 from 5-30 days presents two kinds of quasi-periodic variations: a 200 second quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) and a 2.7-day quasi-periodic variation. The latter has been interpreted by a precessing jet launched near the Bardeen-Petterson radius of a warped disk. Here we suggest that the $\sim$ 200s QPO could be associated with a second, narrower jet sweeping the observer line-of-sight periodically, which is launched from a spinning black hole in the misaligned direction with respect to the black hole's angular momentum. In addition, we show that this two-component jet model can interpret the radio light curve of the event, especially the re-brightening feature starting $\sim 100$ days after the trigger. From the data we infer that inner jet may have a Lorentz factor of $\Gamma_{\rm j} \sim 5.5$ and a kinetic energy of $E_{\rm k,iso} \sim 3.0 \times 10^{52} {\rm erg}$, while the outer jet may have a Lorentz factor of $\Gamma_{\rm j} \sim 2.5$ and a kinetic energy of $E_{\rm k,iso} \sim 3.0 \times 10^{53} {\rm erg}$.