Zooming in on a sleeping giant: milliarcsecond High Sensitivity Array imaging of the black hole binary V404 Cyg in quiescence

Observations of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cyg with the very long baseline interferometer the High Sensitivity Array (HSA) have detected the source at a frequency of 8.4 GHz, providing a source position accurate to 0.3 mas relative to the calibrator source. The observations put an upper limit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Miller-Jones, James, Gallo, E., Rupen, M., Mioduszewski, A., Brisken, W., Fender, R., Jonker, P., Maccarone, T.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13495.x/full
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42925
Description
Summary:Observations of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cyg with the very long baseline interferometer the High Sensitivity Array (HSA) have detected the source at a frequency of 8.4 GHz, providing a source position accurate to 0.3 mas relative to the calibrator source. The observations put an upper limit of 1.3 mas on the source size (5.2 au at 4 kpc) and a lower limit of 7 × 10^6 K on its brightness temperature during the normal quiescent state, implying that the radio emission must be non-thermal, most probably synchrotron radiation, possibly from a jet. The radio light curves show a short flare, with a rise time of ~30 min, confirming that the source remains active in the quiescent state.