Professor Rob Fender

Abstract:

We have compiled from the available literature a large set of radio measurements of black hole binaries in the hard X-ray state for which measurements of the gigahertz frequency radio spectral index are possible. We separate the sample into `radio loud' and `radio quiet' subsets based upon their distribution in the radio -- X-ray plane, and investigate the distribution of radio spectral indices within each subset. The distribution of spectral indices of the `radio loud' subset is well described by a Gaussian distribution with mean spectral index $\alpha = +0.2$ and standard deviation $0.2$ (here spectral index is defined such that a positive spectral index means more flux at higher frequencies). The sparser sample for the `radio quiet' subset can be approximated, less well, by a Gaussian with mean $\alpha = -0.2$ and standard deviation $0.3$; alternatively the simple mean of the distribution of the radio quiet subset is $-0.3$. The two spectral index distributions are different at high statistical significance. Confirming previous work in the literature, we test to see if the differences in observed spectra could result from different distributions of jet viewing angles, but find no evidence for this. We conclude therefore that the jets in the two groups are physically different in some way, and briefly discuss possible origins and further possible diagnostics. Finally we note that extrapolating to lower frequencies the two subsets move closer together in the radio -- X-ray plane, and approximately merge into a single distribution at around 400 MHz.

Abstract:

We have shown previously that a broad correlation between the peak radio luminosity and the variability time-scales, approximately L ∝ τ5, exists for variable synchrotron emitting sources and that different classes of astrophysical sources occupy different regions of luminosity and time-scale space. Based on those results, we investigate whether the most basic information available for a newly discovered radio variable or transient – their rise and/or decline rate – can be used to set initial constraints on the class of events from which they originate. We have analysed a sample of ≈800 synchrotron flares, selected from light curves of ≈90 sources observed at 5–8 GHz, representing a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, from flare stars to supermassive black holes. Selection of outbursts from the noisy radio light curves has been done automatically in order to ensure reproducibility of results. The distribution of rise/decline rates for the selected flares is modelled as a Gaussian probability distribution for each class of object, and further convolved with estimated areal density of that class in order to correct for the strong bias in our sample. We show in this way that comparing the measured variability time-scale of a radio transient/variable of unknown origin can provide an early, albeit approximate, classification of the object, and could form part of a suite of measurements used to provide early categorization of such events. Finally, we also discuss the effect scintillating sources will have on our ability to classify events based on their variability time-scales.