Cambridge University Press (CUP), Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, S275(6), p. 303-304, 2010
DOI: 10.1017/s1743921310016212
Full text: Unavailable
AbstractWe present a new model of emission from jets in microquasars, which implements elements from the study of jets in gamma-ray bursts to these objects. By assuming that electrons are accelerated once at the base of the jet to a power law distribution above a low energy Maxwellian, and are cooled by synchrotron emission and possible adiabatic energy losses along the jet, a wealth of spectra can be obtained. We show our theoretical results which can explain some of the key observations. In particular, we show that: (I) a flat radio spectrum, as is frequently seen, is a natural outcome of the model; (II) Strong magnetic field results in a flux decay in the optical/UV band as Fν ~ ν−1/2, irrespective of many of the uncertainties of the model. (III) An increase of the magnetic field above a critical value of ~105 G leads to a sharp decrease in the flux at the radio band, while the flux at higher frequencies saturates to a constant value. We conclude that scatter in the values of the magnetic field may provide a natural explanation to the observed scatter in the radio/X ray luminosity correlation seen in these objects.