X‐Ray Emission from the Jets of XTE J1550−564

Abstract

We report on X-ray observations of the large-scale jets recently discovered in the radio and detected in X-rays from the black hole candidate X-ray transient and microquasar XTE J1550-564. On 2002 March 11, X-ray emission was detected 23" to the west of the black hole candidate and was extended along the jet axis with an FWHM of 1.2" and a full width at 10% of maximum intensity of 5". The morphology of the X-ray emission matched well to that of the radio emission at the same epoch. The jet moved by 0.52"+/-0.13" between 2002 March 11 and June 19. The apparent speed during that interval was 5.2+/-1.3 mas day-1. This is significantly less than the average apparent speed of 18.1+/-0.4 mas day-1 from 1998 to 2002, assuming that the jet was ejected in 1998 September, and indicates that the jet has decelerated. The X-ray spectrum is adequately described by a power law with a photon index near 1.8 subject to interstellar absorption. The unabsorbed X-ray flux was 3.4×10-13 ergs cm-2 s-1 in the 0.3-8 keV band in 2002 March and decreased to 2.9×10-13 ergs cm-2 s-1 in June. We also detect X-rays from the eastern jet in 2002 March and show that it has decelerated and dimmed since the previous detections in 2000.