Thermonuclear explosions on neutron stars reveal the speed of their jets

Abstract

Relativistic jets are observed from accreting and cataclysmic transients throughout the Universe, and have a profound affect on their surroundings. Despite their importance, their launch mechanism is not known. For accreting neutron stars, the speed of their compact jets can reveal whether the jets are powered by magnetic fields anchored in the accretion flow or in the star itself, but to-date no such measurements exist. These objects can display bright explosions on their surface due to unstable thermonuclear burning of recently accreted material, called type-I X-ray bursts, during which the mass accretion rate increases. Here, we report on bright flares in the jet emission for a few minutes after each X-ray burst, attributed to the increased accretion rate. With these flares, we measure the speed of a neutron star compact jet to be $v=0.38_{-0.08}^{+0.11}$c, much slower than those from black holes at similar luminosities. This discovery provides a powerful new tool in which we can determine the role that individual system properties have on the jet speed, revealing the dominant jet launching mechanism.

27 pages, 7 figures. In press

References in corpus (18)

• CASA, the Common Astronomy Software Applications for Radio Astronomy
• Thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts observed by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
• Black hole-like hysteresis and accretion states in neutron star low mass X-ray binaries
• Evidence for enhanced persistent emission during sub-Eddington thermonuclear bursts
• Accretion disks and coronae in the X-ray flashlight
• Measuring fundamental jet properties with multi-wavelength fast timing of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070
• Radio Frequency Timing Analysis of the Compact Jet in the Black Hole X-ray Binary Cygnus X-1
• The Varying Kinematics of Multiple Ejecta from the Black Hole X-ray Binary MAXI J1820+070
• Rapid compact jet quenching in the Galactic black hole candidate X-ray binary MAXI J1535-571
• Lorentz Factors of compact jets in Black hole X-ray binaries
• A shared accretion instability for black holes and neutron stars
• The impact of thermal winds on the outburst lightcurves of black hole X-ray binaries
• ALMA observations of 4U 1728-34 and 4U 1820-30: first detection of neutron star X-ray binaries at 300 GHz
• Burst-Disk Interaction in 4U 1636-536 as observed by NICER
• Study of the X-ray properties of the neutron-star binary 4U 1728$-$34 from the soft to hard state
• Discovery of a thermonuclear Type I X-ray burst in infrared: new limits on the orbital period of 4U 1728-34
• Eclipses of jets and discs of X-ray binaries as a powerful tool for understanding jet physics and binary parameters
• The simultaneity of emission from approaching and receding jets

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quenching and recovery of persistent X-ray emission during a superburst in 4U 1820$-$30
• State Space Modelling for detecting and characterising Gravitational Waves afterglows
• Unveiling the biconical geometry of the outflow in the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5204 X-1
• Long thermonuclear burst driven thermal-viscous instability of accretion disk: triggering an outburst-like X-ray flare
• QPO signatures of disk restoration after type-I X-ray bursts from 4U~1636$-$536
• Rapid far-infrared spectral timing of X-ray binaries with PRIMA