A Unified Model for Black Hole X-Ray Binary Jets?

We have recently put forward a ‘unified’ semi-empirical model for the coupling between accretion and jet production in galactic black hole X-ray binaries. In this paper, we summarise this model and briefly discuss relevant considerations that have arisen since its publication.     

Radio and X-ray properties of relativistic beaming models for ultraluminous X-ray sources

We calculate the broad-band radio–X-ray spectra predicted by microblazar and microquasar models for ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), exploring the possibility that their dominant power-law component is produced by a relativistic jet, even at near-Eddington mass accretion rates. We do this by first constructing a generalized disc–jet theoretical framework in which some fraction of the total accretion power, P _a, is efficiently removed from the accretion disc by a magnetic torque responsible for jet formation. Thus, for different black hole masses, mass accretion rates and magnetic coupling strength, we self-consistently calculate the relative importance of the modified disc spectrum, as well as the overall jet emission due to synchrotron and Compton processes. In general, transferring accretion power to a jet makes the disc fainter and cooler than a standard disc at the same mass accretion rate; this may explain why the soft spectral component appears less prominent than the dominant power-law component in most bright ULXs. We show that the apparent X-ray luminosity and spectrum predicted by the microquasar model are consistent with the observed properties of most ULXs. We predict that the radio synchrotron jet emission is too faint to be detected at the typical threshold of radio surveys to date. This is consistent with the high rate of non-detections over detections in radio counterpart searches. Conversely, we conclude that the observed radio emission found associated with a few ULXs cannot be due to beamed synchrotron emission from a relativistic jet.     

Low-speed impacts between rubble piles modeled as collections of polyhedra

We present results of modeling rubble piles as collections of polyhedra. The use of polyhedra allows more realistic (irregular) shapes and interactions (e.g. collisions), particularly for objects of different sizes. Rotational degrees of freedom are included in the modeling, which may be important components of the motion. We solved the equations of rigid-body dynamics, including frictional/inelastic collisions, for collections of up to several hundred elements. As a demonstration of the methods and to compare with previous work by other researchers, we simulated low-speed collisions between km-scale bodies with the same general parameters as those simulated by Leinhardt et al. [Leinhardt, Z.M., Richardson, D.C., Quinn, T., 2000. Icarus 146, 133-151]. High-speed collisions appropriate to present-day asteroid encounters require additional treatment of shock effects and fragmentation and are the subject of future work; here we study regimes appropriate to planetesimal accretion and re-accretion in the aftermath of catastrophic events. Collisions between equal-mass objects at low speeds () were simulated for both head-on and off-center collisions between rubble piles made of a power-law mass spectrum of sub-elements. Very low-speed head-on collisions produce single objects from the coalescence of the impactors. For slightly higher speeds, extensive disruption occurs, but re-accretion produces a single object with most of the total mass. For increasingly higher speeds, the re-accreted object has smaller mass, finally resulting in complete catastrophic disruption with all sub-elements on escape trajectories and only small amounts of mass in re-accreted bodies. Off-center collisions at moderately low speeds produce two re-accreted objects of approximately equal mass, separating at greater than escape speed. At high speed, complete disruption occurs as with the high-speed head-on collisions. Head-on collisions at low to moderate speeds result in objects of mostly oblate shape, while higher speed collisions produce mostly prolate objects, as do off-center collisions at moderate and high speeds. Collisions carried out with the same dissipative coefficients (coefficient of restitution ?n=0.8, zero friction) as used by Leinhardt et al. [Leinhardt, Z.M., Richardson, D.C., Quinn, T., 2000. Icarus 146, 133-151] result in a value for specific energy for disruption , somewhat lower than the value of 2 J/kg found by them, while collisions with a lower coefficient of restitution and friction [?n=0.5, ?t=0, μ=0.5, similar to those used by Michel, et al. [Michel, P., Benz, W., Richardson, D.C., 2004. Planet. Space Sci. 52, 1109-1117] for SPH + N-body calculations] yield .