Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope monitoring of the black hole X-ray binary, V404 Cygni, during its June 2015 outburst

TL;DR

This study used GMRT observations to analyze the radio emission and jet properties of the black hole binary V404 Cygni during its 2015 outburst, revealing insights into jet energetics and spectral evolution.

Contribution

First detailed low-frequency radio monitoring of V404 Cygni during outburst, deriving jet physical parameters and challenging the spin-jet power correlation.

Findings

Bright, fast-decaying radio emission during outburst

Spectral turnover at approximately 1.5 GHz indicating synchrotron self-absorption

Jet power estimated at about 8 x 10^34 erg/s, low relative to black hole spin

Abstract

We report results from a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) monitoring campaign on the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni during its 2015 June outburst. The GMRT observations were carried out at observing frequencies of 1280, 610, 325 and 235 MHz, and extended from June 26.89 UT (a day after the strongest radio/X-ray outburst) to July 12.93 UT. We find the low-frequency radio emission of V404 Cygni to be extremely bright and fast-decaying in the outburst phase, with an inverted spectrum below 1.5 GHz and an intermediate X-ray state. The radio emission settles to a weak, quiescent state $\approx 11$ days after the outburst, with a flat radio spectrum and a soft X-ray state. Combining the GMRT measurements with flux density estimates from the literature, we identify a spectral turnover in the radio spectrum at $\approx 1.5$ GHz on $\approx$ June 26.9 UT, indicating the presence of a synchrotron self-absorbed emitting region. We use the measured flux density at the turnover frequency with the assumption of equipartition of energy between the particles and the magnetic field to infer the jet radius ($\approx 4.0 \times 10^{13}$ cm), magnetic field ($\approx 0.5$ G), minimum total energy ($\approx 7 \times 10^{39}$ ergs) and transient jet power ($\approx 8 \times 10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$). The relatively low value of the jet power, despite V404 Cygni's high black hole spin parameter, suggests that the radio jet power does not correlate with the spin parameter.