From multiwavelength to mass scaling: Accretion and ejection in microquasars and AGN

Abstract

A solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing, accreting plasma around black holes and other compact objects gives rise to outflowing winds and jets is still lacking, despite decades of observations. The fact that similar processes and morphologies are observed in both X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei has led to suggestions that the underlying physics could scale with black hole mass, which could provide a new handle on the problem. In the last decade, simultaneous broadband campaigns of the fast-varying X-ray binaries particularly in their microquasar state have driven the development of, and in some cases altered, our ideas about the inflow/outflow connection in accreting black holes. Specifically, the discovery of correlations between the radio, infrared, and X-ray bands has revealed a remarkable connectivity between the various emission regions and argued for a more holistic approach to tackling questions about accretion. This chapter reviews the recent major observational and theoretical advances that focus specifically on the relation between the two "sides" of the accretion process in black holes, with an emphasis on how new tools can be derived forcomparisons across the mass scale. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.