MAXI J1535−571 is a Galactic black hole candidate X-ray binary that was discovered going into outburst in 2017 September. In this paper, we present comprehensive radio monitoring of this system using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), as well as the MeerKAT radio observatory, showing the evolution of the radio jet during its outburst. Our radio observations show the early rise and subsequent quenching of the compact jet as the outburst brightened and then evolved towards the soft state. We constrain the compact jet quenching factor to be more than 3.5 orders of magnitude. We also detected and tracked (for 303 days) a discrete, relativistically-moving jet knot that was launched from the system. From the motion of the apparently superluminal knot, we constrain the jet inclination (at the time of ejection) and speed to ≤ 45 • and ≥ 0.69c, respectively. Extrapolating its motion back in time, our results suggest that the jet knot was ejected close in time to the transition from the hard intermediate state to soft intermediate state. The launching event also occurred contemporaneously with a short increase in X-ray count rate, a rapid drop in the strength of the X-ray variability, and a change in the type-C quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) frequency that occurs >2.5 days before the first appearance of a possible type-B QPO.

The transient neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binary MAXI J0556−332 provides a rare opportunity to study NS crust heating and subsequent cooling for multiple outbursts of the same source. We examine MAXI, Swift, Chandra, and XMM-Newton data of MAXI J0556−332 obtained during and after three accretion outbursts of different durations and brightnesses. We report on new data obtained after outburst III. The source has been tracked up to ∼1800 days after the end of outburst I. Outburst I heated the crust strongly, but no significant reheating was observed during outburst II. Cooling from ∼333 eV to ∼146 eV was observed during the first ∼1200 days. Outburst III reheated the crust up to ∼167 eV, after which the crust cooled again to ∼131 eV in ∼350 days. We model the thermal evolution of the crust and find that this source required a different strength and depth of shallow heating during each of the three outbursts. The shallow heating released during outburst I was ∼17 MeV nucleon −1 and outburst III required ∼0.3 MeV nucleon −1 . These cooling observations could not be explained without shallow heating. The shallow heating for outburst II was not well constrained and could vary from ∼0 to 2.2 MeV nucleon −1 , i.e., this outburst could in principle be explained without invoking shallow heating. We discuss the nature of the shallow heating and why it may occur at different strengths and depths during different outbursts.

We report on unusually very hard spectral states in three confirmed neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries (1RXS J180408.9−342058, EXO 1745−248, and IGR J18245−2452) at a luminosity between ∼ 10 36−37 erg s −1. When fitting the Swift X-ray spectra (0.5 -10 keV) in those states with an absorbed power-law model, we found photon indices of Γ ∼ 1, significantly lower than the Γ = 1.5 -2.0 typically seen when such systems are in their so called hard state. For individual sources very hard spectra were already previously identified but here we show for the first time that likely our sources were in a distinct spectral state (i.e., different from the hard state) when they exhibited such very hard spectra. It is unclear how such very hard spectra can be formed; if the emission mechanism is similar to that operating in their hard states (i.e., up-scattering of soft photons due to hot electrons) then the electrons should have higher temperatures or a higher optical depth in the very hard state compared to those observed in the hard state. By using our obtained Γ as a tracer for the spectral evolution with luminosity, we have compared our results with those obtained by Wijnands et al. (2015). We confirm their general results in that also our sample of sources follow the same track as the other neutron star systems, although we do not find that the accreting millisecond pulsars are systematically harder than the non-pulsating systems.

Monitoring the cooling of neutron-star crusts heated during accretion outbursts allows us to infer the physics of the dense matter present in the crust. We examine the crust cooling evolution of the low-mass X-ray binary MXB 1659−29 up to ∼505 days after the end of its 2015 outburst (hereafter outburst II) and compare it with what we observed after its previous 1999 outburst (hereafter outburst I) using data obtained from the Swift, XMM-Newton, and Chandra observatories. The observed effective surface temperature of the neutron star in MXB 1659−29 dropped from ∼92 eV to ∼56 eV from ∼12 days to ∼505 days after the end of outburst II. The most recently performed observation after outburst II suggests that the crust is close to returning to thermal equilibrium with the core. We model the crust heating and cooling for both its outbursts collectively to understand the effect of parameters that may change for every outburst (e.g., the average accretion rate, the length of outburst, the envelope composition of the neutron star at the end of the outburst) and those which can be assumed to remain the same during these two outbursts (e.g., the neutron star mass, its radius). Our modelling indicates that all parameters were consistent between the two outbursts with no need for any significant changes. In particular, the strength and the depth of the shallow heating mechanism at work (in the crust) were inferred to be the same during both outbursts, contrary to what has been found when modelling the cooling curves after multiple outburst of another source, MAXI J0556−332. This difference in source behaviour is not understood. We discuss our results in the context of our current understanding of cooling of accretion-heated neutron-star crusts, and in particular with respect to the unexplained shallow heating mechanism.

We present results from six epochs of quasi-simultaneous radio, (sub-)millimetre, infrared, optical, and X-ray observations of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1535−571. These observations show that as the source transitioned through the hard-intermediate X-ray state towards the soft intermediate X-ray state, the jet underwent dramatic and rapid changes. We observed the frequency of the jet spectral break, which corresponds to the most compact region in the jet where particle acceleration begins (higher frequencies indicate closer to the black hole), evolve from the IR band into the radio band (decreasing by ≈3 orders of magnitude) in less than a day. During one observational epoch, we found evidence of the jet spectral break evolving in frequency through the radio band. Estimating the magnetic field and size of the particle acceleration region shows that the rapid fading of the high-energy jet emission was not consistent with radiative cooling; instead the particle acceleration region seems to be moving away from the black hole on approximately dynamical timescales. This result suggests that the compact jet quenching is not caused by local changes to the particle acceleration, rather we are observing the acceleration region of the jet travelling away from the black hole with the jet flow. Spectral analysis of the X-ray emission show a gradual softening in the few days before the dramatic jet changes, followed by a more rapid softening ∼1–2 days after the onset of the jet quenching.

ABSTRACT1RXS J180408.9-342058 is a transient neutron star low-mass X-ray binary that exhibited a bright accretion outburst in 2015. We present NuSTAR, Swift, and Chandra observations obtained around the peak brightness of this outburst. The source was in a soft X-ray spectral state and displayed an X-ray luminosity of L X ≃(2 − 3) × 10 37 (D/5.8 kpc) 2 erg s −1 (0.5-10 keV). The NuSTAR data reveal a broad Fe-K emission line that we model as relativistically broadened reflection to constrain the accretion geometry. We found that the accretion disk is viewed at an inclination of i≃27 • -35 • and extended close to the neutron star, down to R in ≃5-7.5 gravitational radii (≃11-17 km). This inner disk radius suggests that the neutron star magnetic field strength is B 2×10 8 G. We find a narrow absorption line in the Chandra/HEG data at an energy of ≃7.64 keV with a significance of ≃4.8σ. This feature could correspond to blue-shifted Fe XXVI and arise from an accretion disk wind, which would imply an outflow velocity of v out ≃0.086c (≃25 800 km s −1 ). However, this would be extreme for an X-ray binary and it is unclear if a disk wind should be visible at the low inclination angle that we infer from our reflection analysis. Finally, we discuss how the X-ray and optical properties of 1RXS J180408.9-342058 are consistent with a relatively small (P orb 3 hr) binary orbit.

The main outburst of the candidate black hole low-mass X-ray binary (BH LMXB) MAXI J1535−571 ended in 2018 May and was followed by at least five episodes of re-brightenings. We have monitored this re-brightening phenomenon at X-ray and radio wavelengths using the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Australia Telescope Compact Array, respectively. The first two re-brightenings exhibited a high peak X-ray luminosity (implying a high mass accretion rate) and were observed to transition from the hard to the soft state. However, unlike the main outburst, these re-brightenings did not exhibit clear hysteresis. During the re-brightenings, when MAXI J1535−571 was in the hard state, we observed the brightening of a compact radio jet which was subsequently quenched when the source transitioned to a similar soft state as was observed during the main outburst. We report on the first investigation of disk-jet coupling over multiple rapidly evolving re-brightenings in a BH LMXB. We find that the accretion flow properties and the accompanying compact jet evolve on a similarly rapid time scale of ∼days rather than the typical value of ∼weeks as observed for most other BH LMXBs during their main outburst events.

We present quasi-simultaneous radio (VLA) and X-ray (Swift) observations of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary (NS-LMXB) 1RXS J180408.9−342058 (J1804) during its 2015 outburst. We found that the radio jet of J1804 was bright (232 ± 4 µJy at 10 GHz) during the initial hard X-ray state, before being quenched by more than an order of magnitude during the soft X-ray state (19 ± 4 µJy). The source then was undetected in radio (<13 µJy) as it faded to quiescence. In NS-LMXBs, possible jet quenching has been observed in only three sources and the J1804 jet quenching we show here is the deepest and clearest example to date. Radio observations when the source was fading towards quiescence (L X = 10 34-35 erg s −1) show that J1804 must follow a steep track in the radio/X-ray luminosity plane with β > 0.7 (where L R ∝ L β X). Few other sources have been studied in this faint regime, but a steep track is inconsistent with the suggested behaviour for the recently identified class of transitional millisecond pulsars. J1804 also shows fainter radio emission at L X < 10 35 erg s −1 than what is typically observed for accreting millisecond pulsars. This suggests that J1804 is likely not an accreting X-ray or transitional millisecond pulsar.