SS433 and other transients Zsolt Paragi (JIVE) Presented at the Resolving The Sky conference, Manchester, April 2012

Outline SS433, an introduction The radio jets on mas scales: compact jets and discrete ejecta SS433 and microquasars Microquasars/SS433 and AGN Other microquasars, transients and TeV sources with the ‘e-EVN’

SS433: the first Galactic radio-jet system Strong, H  spectral lines (Stephenson, Sandaluek 1977) Eclipsing binary, V1343 Aql, m v =14 mg (Kholopov et al. 1981) Related radio and X-ray sources Spectral lines at unusual frequencies (Margon et al. 1979) Doppler-shifted Balmer and HeI lines (Fabian, Rees 1979, Milgrom 1979) “moving lines”, between and km/s, P~164 days (Margon 1979b) RADIO MERLIN: elongated structure on 1” scales (Spencer 1979) ‘EVN’: compact VLBI structure, ~10 mas (Schilizzi et al. 1979) VLA: precessing beams (Hjellming, Johnston 1981) A dozen of Nature papers in 1979 More than 2000 papers to date Hope to understand AGN through SS433

The binary stellar system: O, B, or WR normal star, about 10 M  or larger Black hole or neutron star, M compact /M  ~0,25 (estimate) 4  cm (0,27 AU) (Brinkmann, Kawai, Matsuok 1989) day orbital period (Kemp et al. 1986) dM/dt =  M  /yr (van den Heuvel 1981) L bol =  erg/s (e.g. Wagner 1986) L X = erg/s (Kotani et al. 1996) L kin = 2  erg/s (e.g. Watson et al. 1986) Hjellming, Johnston (1986)

inclination: i = 78,83   0,10  (Margon & Anderson 1989) precession cone half opening angle:  = 19,85   0,17  (Margon & Anderson 1989) precession cone axis projected PA:  = 100   2  (Hjellming & Johnston 1981): sense of precession: s =  1 (Hjellming & Johnston 1981) jet velocity: v jet = 0,2602  0,0013 c (Margon & Anderson 1989) precession period P 164 = 162,5  0,03 day (Margon & Anderson 1989) precession phase = 0.0 at: t 164 = JD ,03  0,3 (Vermeulen 1989) Hjellming, Johnston (1985) Kinematic model parameters

Kinematic distance and Doppler beaming Wb, Ef, Jb only! MkII/MkIII If v=0.26, d=5.0  0.3 kpc ! cf. HI d=3.6 kpc Fejes (1986a) Unbeamed and beamed models; comparison with real data suggests beaming Is observed as expected Fejes (1986b) Istv á n Fejes ( )

Vermeulen et al. (1993) EVN 10-days monitoring at 5 GHz, 1987 D = 5 kpc  0,001” = 5 AU elongated radio core discrete ejecta (bright flares ~400 days) brightening zone Facts sheet (data: Ralph Spencer; RCV thesis) 1985 May, MkIII mode E, 14 MHz LCP, EVN: Ef, Jb, On, Mc, Wb May/June, mode A, 56 MHz EVN+GBT 43m; MERLIN 1-pass only 13 minutes Used whole EVN supply of tapes, weighing more than a tonne! Correlated at Bonn in several passes

The compact inner jets Optically thin ejecta Flux ratio as expected (beaming) Optically (partially) thick core jets: Synchrotron self-absorption, similar to AGN cores (Blandford & Königl 1979) In addition, anisotropic free-free absorption (cf. Stirling et al. 1997) Optical depth (Lobanov et al. 1998): Jet profile (cf. Hjellming and Johnston 1988) Paragi et al n e  1.2×10 6 cm -3 VLBA

The equatorial outflow * Various epochs/frequencies show evidence for: free-free absorption at the base of the counterjet ionized outflow, roughly perpendicular to the jets radio emission from equatorial outflow detected synchrotron/thermal origins proposed (cf. Blundell et al. 2001) but note high T b ! VLBA 22 GHz, 16 June 1998 Global VLBI, 6 June 1998 T b ~10 8 K

SS433 radio polarization Linear polarization is observed on ~100 mas – as scales (VLA, MERLIN), outside the inner depolarized zone (ionized gas in eq. outflow or in the jet) B aligned with local velocity => continuous jet (Stirling et al. 2004) B aligned with ballistic velocity => discrete ejecta (Miller-Jones et al. 2008) Linear polarization not detected with VLBI yet (but Tudose et al. in prep.) Circular polarization is occasionally detected (ATCA; Fender et al. 2000) Dedicated global VLBI experiment to look for CP origin: non-detection, but also WSRT data show no CP at that epoch (Paragi et al. 2004)

SS433 with CHANDRA Migliari et al. (2002) Reheating of atomic nuclei in the extended X-ray jets Evidence for very high Lorentz-factor inner flow? – as Fomalont et al. (2001) suggested for Sco X-1??? Extended emission in eq. flow as evidence for hot gas cannot be 100% confirmed, but may be real (Rob Fender, priv.comm.)

Galactic analogy of an alternative “AGN feedback” process? Does SS433 heat up ISM to K? Mass loss in equatorial wind may reach or even exceed the transfer rate to the jets (King et al. 1999, Paragi 2000) Ultrafast outflows observed in X-rays in 40% of a sample of 42 galaxies Regulating BH grow as well as stripping gas from star-forming regions; would naturally explain M BH -M bulge relation (Tombesi et al. 2012) XMM/NASA

BHXRB state transitions: X-ray HID Low/Hard state High/Soft state SIMS HIMS Compact jet Increasing Accretion rate, increasing L x ~L r Following e.g. Fender et al. (2004) jet line (?) jet suppresseddiscrete ejecta SS433 as a microquasar “compact jets” quenched state discrete ejecta known distance, v jet, composition! But BH or neutron star? continuously in “soft state” L X very low while L R high X-rays from thermal jet

Tudose et al. (2010) Flaring SS433 SS433 likely has similar accretion state changes to other BHXRBs, but it is hidden from us in the X-rays v jet is well known in SS433 from optical lines, but also from VLBI-only measurements of transient ejecta (Vermeulen 1989) but there may be a very high gamma inner flow (cf. “dark jet”, Miller-Jones et al. 2008) tempting to interpret more and more assymetric core-jets at higher frequencies with increasing  deeper in the jet But low/high frequencies show discrete ejecta travel at the exact same speed, v=0.26c this also seem to contradict the idea that during outburst in BHXRB there is an increase of , leading to the shocks Following up flaring microquasars with the “e-EVN” has became routine procedure with triggered e-VLBI observations.

The Fundamental Plane of Black Hole Activity Merloni et al. (2003); Falcke et al.(2003) K ö rding et al. (2006) etc. Scaling between BHXRB in the hard state and AGN Not all AGN classes fit SS433 is far brighter in radio than hard state BHXRB Some LLAGN samples have very similar outliers (e.g. de Gasperin et al. 2011) Why SS433 is so special???

Dubner et al. (1998) 0.5 deg GHz VLA SS433 SS433-W50: a ULX plus radio nebula? SS433 accretion disk X-ray emission is scattered along the jets When viewed along the jets, SS433 May be seen as a powerful ULX (Fabrika 2000) Supercritical accretion disc funnel: Feng & Soria (2011) A new example of BH powered ULX nebula is IC342 X-1 (Cseh et al. 2012)

EU Commissioner Janez Potocnik unleashes the power of e-VLBI, 2006 JIVE moments Richard with Queen's Commissioner in the Province of Drenthe, Relus ter Beek, official opening of the EVN correlator (1998) Farewell 2002 December 17

How we imagined e-EVN follow-up of high energy transients

A few examples…

Strongly decelerating jet in XTE J Yang et al. (2010, 2011) Radio core X-ray transient discovered by RXTE on 23 Oct. 2009; gradually evolved to soft state and produced radio flare Initial EVN/e-VLBI observations on 11 Feb one component (A) VLBA follow-up showed proper motion with strong deceleration and a new component (B) that was initially thought to be the counter-jet. EVN observations in March showed another ejected component (C) After the source went back to the hard state two epochs VLBA observations detected the core in the system Core apparently had high variability After understanding source geometry, further analysed component B which showed high proper motion during the single experiment it was detected

MAXI J , the shortest orbital period BHXRB Peak position

Compact jet interpretation Flux density [mJy] Coreshift [mas] X-ray lightcurve Hardness-Intensity Core size [mas] Size change [mas] d core  S 12/13  d core ~1.8  r core Source size changes vs. flux density and core shift are in agreement with the compact jet model. Some core quenching is observed, but no bright, discrete ejecta through the state transition. Similar behaviour seen in Cyg X-1. (Rushton et al. 2012) Not powerful enough to produce strong shocks in the flow? Paragi et al. (2011) Paragi et al. (in prep.)

Point like, variable TeV source discovered by the HESS team (Aharonian et al. 2007; Acciari et al. 2009) Variable counterparts in the X-rays and in the radio band (Hinton et al and Skilton et al. 2009, respectively) Proposed counterpart is the massive B0pe star MWC 148, d~1.5 kpc; SED similar to LSI , but order of mag. fainter (Hinton et al. 2009) Swift/XRT: 321  5d periodicity (Bongiorno et al. 2011) supports binary nature, but binarity with optical spectroscopy not confirmed yet X-ray outburst in Feb (Falcone et al. 2011) VERITAS and MAGIC reported increased activity at >200 GeV between 7-9 Feb (Ong 2011; Mariotti 2011) e-EVN: first VLBI detection! HESS J ,  -ray BH binary candidate Moldon, Ribo & Paredes (2011), ATel #3180

Radio emission within 20 AU of MWC 148: confirming optical counterpart and indicating a compact object in close orbit T b >10 6 K – nonthermal radio emission Follow-up observations during the normal EVN session, 30 days later: extended structure seen ~20 AU off the first epoch position, size ~75 AU e-EVN:  -ray BH binary scenario confirmed Moldon, Ribo & Paredes (2011), A&A 533, L7 Peak:340  50  Jy/bm Total: 410  90  Jy Peak:81  14  Jy/bm Total: 200  40  Jy

A surprise from the Crab-nebula VLA (NRAO) HST (NASA/ESA) Chandra (NASA) Radio Optical X-rays

A gamma-ray flare detected by AGILE Tavani et al. 2011, Science AGILE lightcurve, 2010 A pulsar wind nebula: highly magnetized plasma of relativistic particles collide with ISM Until now has thought to be very stable (at large) in the X-rays and  -rays (standard candle) Early AGILE data showed a flare – calibration or instrumental errors? September 2010 another flare (~4 days), later confirmed by Fermi Short duration  small size, L ≤10 16 cm Wisps, knots and the anvil feature known to vary (days to months); interesting features, A in particular, marked to the right (HST/Chandra follow-up) Pulsar itself did not change – where is the flaring region and what is the mechanism? HST Chandra

The Crab-flare with the e-EVN e-EVN + 3 Merlin telescopes, 1.6 GHz observations on 5 Nov Detected pulsar, C1 and C2 components plus extended emission Bright optical knot HST-1 not detected C1 0.5  0.3 mJy,  ~0.2–0.6”; C2 0.4  0.2 mJy,  ≤0.2” SNR<4 for both, but simulations show that they are real Lobanov et al. 2011, Astron. Astrophys 533, A10 Normal CLEAN, uv-tapered, restoring beam 150 mas Multi-resolution CLEAN, uv-tapered, 500 mas

The Crab-flare with the e-EVN e-EVN multi-scale image in contours, restored with 0.7” beam C1, C2 significant offset from jet axis (jet collimation beyond C1???) C1 close to (but not coincident with) knot A – related to  –flare? In this case the injection power generated the burst would be 0.2% of the pulsar spin-down power Lobanov et al. 2011, Astron. Astrophys. 533, A10 e-EVN HST e-EVN Chandra

To be continued...

Prof Richard Schilizzi