Relativistic X-ray jets from the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070
Espinasse, M, Tremou, E, Corbel, S, Plotkin, RM, Tzioumis, A, Migliori, G, Orosz, JA, Kaaret, P, Tomsick, J, Homan, J, Fender, RP, Miller-Jones, JCA, Russell, DM, Gallo, E, Bright, J, Jonker, PG, Motta, S
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.