We present the detection of a radio-emitting jet from the black-hole candidate and X-ray binary source Cygnus X-1. Evidence of a bright core with a slightly extended structure was found on milliarcsecond resolution observations with the VLBA at 15.4 GHz. Later observations with the VLBA (and including the phased up VLA) at 8.4 GHz show an extended jet-like feature extending to approx. 15 mas from a core region, with an opening angle of < 2 degrees. In addition, lower resolution MERLIN observations at 5 GHz show that the source has < 10 per cent linear polarization. The source was in the low/hard X-ray state during the observations, and the results confirm the existence of persistent radio emission from an unresolved core and a variable relativistic (> 0.6c) jet during this state.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

We have studied the 1999 soft X‐ray transient outburst of XTE J1859+226 at radio and X‐ray wavelengths. The event was characterized by strong variability in the disc, corona and jet – in particular, a number of radio flares (ejections) took place and seemed well‐correlated with hard X‐ray events. Apparently unusual for the canonical‘soft’ X‐ray transient, there was an initial period of low/hard state behaviour during the rise from quiescence but prior to the peak of the main outburst – we show that not only could this initial low/hard state be a ubiquitous feature of soft X‐ray transient outbursts, but also it could be extremely important in our study of outburst mechanisms.

We report on radio observations of the 1999 September event of the X-ray transient V4641 Sgr (\XTE J1819[254\SAX J1819.3[2525). This event was extremely rapid in its rise and decay across radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths ; the X-rays rose to 12 crab within 8 hr and faded to below 0.1 crab in less than 2 hr. Radio observations were made with seven telescopes during the Ðrst day following the onset of the strong X-ray event, revealing a strong radio source that was detected for 3 further weeks by the more sensitive telescopes. The radio source was resolved even in the Ðrst Very Large Array (VLA) images (September 16.027 UT), being long with an axis ratio of at least 10 : 1. The total Ñux D0A .25 density decayed by a factor of D4 over the Ðrst day, and by September 17.94 UT the radio emission was conÐned to a slowly decaying, marginally resolved remnant located at one side of the early elongated emission. The H I absorption spectrum gives a minimum kinematic distance of about 400 pc ; various other arguments suggest that the true distance is not much greater than this. The inferred proper motions for the early extended emission day~1) correspond to v/c D 1.0È (0A .4È1A .1 3.2 (d/0.5 kpc), and this together with the radio morphology argues that this is a relativistic jet source like GRS 1915]105 and GRO J1655[40. The proper motion of the late-time remnant is at least 100 times smaller. One simple interpretation posits the ejection of a single short-lived jet segment, followed by a more slowly decaying, optically thin jet segment ejection. These two components can explain both the multifrequency radio light curves and the radio images. The most likely parameters for the fast-jet system with net-averaged proper motion of day~1, assuming d \ 0.5 kpc, are v D 0.85c and D0A .4 i D 63¡, where i is the inclination to the line of sight. The corresponding apparent velocities are 1.4c and 0.6c for the approaching and receding jets, making V4641 Sgr the closest superluminal jet source known.