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An ultra-relativistic outflow from a neutron star accreting gas from a companion

Nature volume 427, pages 222–224 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Collimated relativistic outflows—also known as jets—are amongst the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. They are associated with supermassive black holes in distant active galactic nuclei1, accreting stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars in binary systems2 and are believed to be responsible for γ-ray bursts3. The physics of these jets, however, remains something of a mystery in that their bulk velocities, compositions and energetics remain poorly determined. Here we report the discovery of an ultra-relativistic outflow from a neutron star accreting gas within a binary stellar system. The velocity of the outflow is comparable to the fastest-moving flows observed from active galactic nuclei, and its strength is modulated by the rate of accretion of material onto the neutron star. Shocks are energized further downstream in the flow, which are themselves moving at mildly relativistic bulk velocities and are the sites of the observed synchrotron emission from the jet. We conclude that the generation of highly relativistic outflows does not require properties that are unique to black holes, such as an event horizon.

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Figure 1: An ultrarelativistic outflow: sequences of radio observations of Circinus X-1 in October 2000, May 2001 and December 2002.
Figure 2: The same data as in Fig. 1, but presented in the form of ‘difference’ maps.

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Acknowledgements

The Australia Telescope is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a national facility managed by CSIRO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomical Institute ‘Anton Pannekoek’, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Rob Fender & Michiel van der Klis

  2. Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, RH5 6NT, Surrey, UK

    Kinwah Wu

  3. School of Physics, University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia

    Helen Johnston

  4. Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping New South Wales, 1710, Australia

    Tasso Tzioumis

  5. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA, Cambridge, UK

    Peter Jonker

  6. University of Manchester, Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank, Cheshire, SK11 9DL, UK

    Ralph Spencer

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  1. Rob Fender
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Correspondence to Rob Fender.

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Fender, R., Wu, K., Johnston, H. et al. An ultra-relativistic outflow from a neutron star accreting gas from a companion. Nature 427, 222–224 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02137

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