Swift J1357.2−0933: a massive black hole in the Galactic thick disc

Sánchez, D. Mata; Muñoz-Darias, T.; Casares, J.; Corral-Santana, J. M.; Shahbaz, T.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2111

Cited by 58 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In any case, for d 5 kpc (i.e., BH scenario according to the optical/X-ray ratio) the system would be located in the thick disc, which itself favours a natal kick to explain such a large height above the Galactic plane (Repetto et al 2012). We note that a population of transient BH-LMXBs is known to be present at these high latitudes (see e.g., Mata Sánchez et al 2015;Kuulkers et al 2013, and references therein). Interestingly, several of these BH systems have relatively short orbital periods (see table 2 in Shahbaz et al 2013).…”

Section: On the Nature Of The Compact Objectmentioning

confidence: 82%

The complex evolution of the X-ray binary transient MAXI J1807+132 along the decay of its discovery outburst

Jiménez-Ibarra

Muñoz-Darias

Padilla

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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MAXI J1807+132 is an X-ray transient discovered during the decay of an outburst in 2017. We present optical and X-ray monitoring of the source over more than 125 days, from outburst to quiescence. The outburst decay is characterized by the presence of several re-flares with a quasi-periodic recurrence time of ∼ 6.5 days. We detect broad H and He emission lines during outburst, characteristic of transient low mass X-ray binaries. These emission lines show strong variability from epoch to epoch and, in particular, during the early stages are found embedded into deep and very broad absorption features. The quiescent spectrum shows Hα in emission and no obvious signatures of the donor star. XMM-Newton and Swift spectra can be fitted with standard X-ray models for accreting black-holes and neutron stars, although the obtained spectral parameters favour the latter scenario. Conversely, other observables such as the optical/X-ray flux ratio, the likely systemic velocity (γ ∼ −150 km s −1 ) and the re-flares recurrence time suggest a black hole nature. We discuss all the above possibilities with emphasis on the strong similarities of MAXI J1807+132 with short orbital period systems.

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Section: On the Nature Of The Compact Objectmentioning

confidence: 82%

The complex evolution of the X-ray binary transient MAXI J1807+132 along the decay of its discovery outburst

Jiménez-Ibarra

Muñoz-Darias

Padilla

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…The data (found in Rau, Greiner & Filgas 2011;Krimm, Kennea & Holland 2011b;Corral-Santana et al 2013;Shahbaz et al 2013;Armas Padilla et al 2014;Mata Sánchez et al 2015;Weng & Zhang 2015;Plotkin et al 2016;Russell et al 2016) span a wavelength range from 193 nm in the near-UV to 4.6 µm in the IR. Other instruments and telescopes with detections of Swift J1357.2-0933 are the 2.5 m SDSS telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico (USA), the 2.2 m MPI/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory ( …”

Section: Archival Data From the Literaturementioning

confidence: 95%

Optical Precursors to Black Hole X-Ray Binary Outbursts: An Evolving Synchrotron Jet Spectrum in Swift J1357.2–0933

Russell¹,

Qasim²,

Bernardini

et al. 2018

ApJ

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We present six years of optical monitoring of the black hole (BH) candidate X-ray binary Swift J1357.2-0933, during and since its discovery outburst in 2011. On these long timescales, the quiescent light curve is dominated by high amplitude, short-term (seconds-days) variability spanning ∼ 2 mag, with an increasing trend of the mean flux from 2012 to 2017 that is steeper than in any other X-ray binary found to date (0.17 mag yr −1 ). We detected the initial optical rise of the 2017 outburst of Swift J1357.2-0933, and we report that the outburst began between 2017 April 1 and 6. Such a steep optical flux rise preceding an outburst is expected according to disk instability models, but the high amplitude variability in quiescence is not. Previous studies have shown that the quiescent spectral, polarimetric, and rapid variability properties of Swift J1357.2-0933 are consistent with synchrotron emission from a weak compact jet. We find that a variable optical/infrared spectrum is responsible for the brightening: a steep, red spectrum before and soon after the 2011 outburst evolves to a brighter, flatter spectrum since 2013. The evolving spectrum appears to be due to the jet spectral break shifting from the infrared in 2012 to the optical in 2013, then back to the infrared by 2016-2017 while the optical remains relatively bright. Swift J1357.2-0933 is a valuable source to study BH jet physics at very low accretion rates and is possibly the only quiescent source in which the optical jet properties can be regularly monitored.

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“…Dolan & Tapia 1989;Gliozzi et al 1998). Emission lines from the accretion disc have been detected in quiescence (Torres et al 2015;Mata Sánchez et al 2015), but its contribution to the continuum is likely to be low, since the UV flux is much fainter than the optical flux (Plotkin et al 2016). The X-ray luminosity is also very low, possibly the lowest measured of all black hole LMXBs (Armas Padilla et al 2014).…”

Section: Swift J13572-0933mentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarized synchrotron emission in quiescent black hole X-ray transients

Russell¹,

Shahbaz²,

Lewis³

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We present near-infrared polarimetric observations of the black hole X-ray binaries Swift J1357.2-0933 and A0620-00. In both sources, recent studies have demonstrated the presence of variable infrared synchrotron emission in quiescence, most likely from weak compact jets. For Swift J1357.2-0933 we find that the synchrotron emission is polarized at a level of 8.0 ± 2.5 per cent (a 3.2 σ detection of intrinsic polarization). The mean magnitude and rms variability of the flux (fractional rms of 19-24 per cent in K S -band) agree with previous observations. These properties imply a continuously launched (stable on long timescales), highly variable (on short timescales) jet in the Swift J1357.2-0933 system in quiescence, which has a moderately tangled magnetic field close to the base of the jet. We find that for A0620-00, there are likely to be three components to the optical-infrared polarization; interstellar dust along the line of sight, scattering within the system, and an additional source that changes the polarization position angle in the reddest (H and K S ) wave-bands. We interpret this as a stronger contribution of synchrotron emission, and by subtracting the line-of-sight polarization, we measure an excess of ∼ 1.25±0.28 per cent polarization and a position angle of the magnetic field vector that is consistent with being parallel with the axis of the resolved radio jet. These results imply that weak jets in low luminosity accreting systems have magnetic fields which possess similarly tangled fields compared to the more luminous, hard state jets in X-ray binaries.

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Swift J1357.2−0933: a massive black hole in the Galactic thick disc

Cited by 58 publications

References 46 publications

The complex evolution of the X-ray binary transient MAXI J1807+132 along the decay of its discovery outburst

The complex evolution of the X-ray binary transient MAXI J1807+132 along the decay of its discovery outburst

Optical Precursors to Black Hole X-Ray Binary Outbursts: An Evolving Synchrotron Jet Spectrum in Swift J1357.2–0933

Polarized synchrotron emission in quiescent black hole X-ray transients

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