Relativistic X-Ray Jets from the Black Hole X-Ray Binary MAXI J1820+070
Mathilde Espinasse, Stéphane Corbel, Philip Kaaret, Evangelia Tremou, Giulia Migliori, Richard M. Plotkin, Joe Bright, John Tomsick, Anastasios Tzioumis, Rob Fender, Jerome A. Orosz, Elena Gallo, Jeroen Homan, Peter G. Jonker, James C. A. Miller-Jones, David M. Russell, Sara Motta
Abstract
Abstract The black hole MAXI J1820+070 was discovered during its 2018 outburst and was extensively monitored across the electromagnetic spectrum. Following the detection of relativistic radio jets, we obtained four Chandra X-ray observations taken between 2018 November and 2019 June, along with radio observations conducted with the Very Large Array and MeerKAT arrays. We report the discovery of X-ray sources associated with the radio jets moving at relativistic velocities with a possible deceleration at late times. The broadband spectra of the jets are consistent with synchrotron radiation from particles accelerated up to very high energies (>10 TeV) by shocks produced by the jets interacting with the interstellar medium. The minimal internal energy estimated from the X-ray observations for the jets is ∼10 41 erg, significantly larger than the energy calculated from the radio flare alone, suggesting most of the energy is possibly not radiated at small scales but released through late-time interactions.